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The    Arab    Horse 


By 

SPENCER  BORDEN 


Many  illustrations 
from    photographs 


NEW  YORK 
Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 
1906 


C>->x  -«• 


Copyright,   1906,  by 

Doubleday,  Page  &  Company 

Published,  September,  1906 


All  rights  reserved, 

including  that  of  translation  into  foreign  languages, 

including  the   Scandina'vian 


CONTENTS 


Preface 

.     vii 

Introduction 

.       XV 

CHAPTER 

I.     Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia 

•       3 

II.     Arabia,  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins 

.     19 

III.     Early    History    and   Families   of   Arab 
Horses  .... 

IV.     How    Some  Arab   Horses   Have   Been 
Obtained       .... 

V.    Arab  Horses  in  America 

VI.     Some  Last  Words 


37 

49 
81 

97 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  Godolphin  Arabian         .         .  Frontispiece 

FACING  PAGE 

Nimr xx 

Arabian  Horses 27 

Zem  Zem         .......     58 

Mares  and  foals  at  Crabbett  Park  .         .         61 

Antika,  4  years         .         .         .         .         .         .66 

Raschida      .......         68 

Mesaoud  .         .         .         .         .         .         .     70 

Greyleg 72 

Euclid 72 

Lanercost     .......         73 

Blitz        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .73 

Kismet         .......         74 

A  typical  polo  pony,  sire  Kismet        .         .         -75 

Maidan  at  23 77 

Maidan    at    23   years   of   age   posing   for   his 

portrait 79 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS— C*«/i«a^^ 

FACING  FAGB 

Heiress    and  hali-bred  daughter,  4  months  old  So 

Gaxaveen     .......  87 

Heiress 88 

Half-bred  gelding  by  Garaveen      .         .         .  89 

Raksh 90 

Segario,  4  years    ......  91 

Imamzada       .......  92 

Rose  of  Sharon     ......  93 

Rumeliya 95 

Rosetta,  4  j-ears    ......  98 


PREFACE 

In  the  present  work  Mr.  Spencer  Bor- 
den brings  together  a  most  interesting 
mass  of  information  regarding  the  relation 
of  the  Arab  horse  to  the  life  and  history 
of  the  Arabians,  and  he  has  kindly  asked 
me  to  preface  the  work  b}"  speaking  more 
particularly  of  the  natural  history  and 
of   the  antiquity  of  this  breed. 

About  two  years  ago  I  began  especially 
to  study  the  Arabian  after  having  de- 
voted many  years  to  the  study  of  the 
horse  in  general.  The  anatomy,  the 
origin,  and  the  natural  history  of  the  Arab 
has  naturally  attracted  less  attention 
than  the  relation  of  the  Arab  to  the  origin 
of  the  thoroughbred  racing  horse.  So  I 
directed  my  attention  especially  to  the 
structure  of  the  animal  as  a  perfect  living 
machine,  to  the  part  it  has  played  in  the 
histor}^  of  the  world  and  to  the  domesti- 
cation of  horses  from  the  earliest  times. 


viii  Preface 

This  proves  to  be  a  far  more  fascinating 
subject  than  any  of  us  suspected  a  few 
years  ago.  Darwin,  in  treating  of  the  or- 
igin of  the  horse,  among  other  animals, 
did  not  give  the  Arab  an  especially  dis- 
tinct rank.  Other  writers,  such  as  the 
distinguished  French  anatomist  Sansan, 
have  pointed  out  the  important  dif- 
ferences in  the  structure  of  the  Arab, 
but  have  not  fully  sustained  the  theory  of 
its  separateness.  It  remained  for  Pro- 
fessor William  Ridgeway  of  Cambridge 
University  to  write  what  will  prove  to  be 
an  epoch-making  book  on  the  natural 
history  of  the  Arab,  since  it  forces  the 
question  of  the  entire  separateness  of  the 
Arab  breed,  as  a  breed  produced  by 
nature  before  domestication  by  man,  and 
entirely  separate  from  the  Northern  horses 
of  Europe. 

This  raises  two  great  questions: 
Did  the  Arab  horses  spring  from  wild 
horses  entirely  distinct  from  other  wild 
horses   and   superior   in   structure   from 
other  wild  horses? 


Preface  ix 

Secondly,  in  what  part  of  the  world  did 
the  wild  horses  which  gave  rise  to  the 
Arabs  have  their  natural  home  and  breed- 
ing grounds? 

On  the  first  point,  as  to  the  entire 
separateness  of  the  Arab  breed  as  an 
original  or  natural  breed  from  other 
horses,  I  am  convinced  not  only  by  the 
arguments  and  facts  brought  forth  by 
Sansan,  Ridgeway,  and  others,  but  by 
my  own  observations  that  nature  en- 
dowed the  so-called  Arab  with  many  of 
its  finest  qualities,  and  that  the  Arabs 
have  improved  the  breed  but  without 
greatly  modifying  it.  The  methods  of 
horse  rearing  adopted  among  the  Arabs 
are  calculated  to  produce  a  fine  and  hardy 
race  but  the  methods  of  selection  chiefly 
of  mares  are  not  calculated  to  modify  a 
race  very  rapidly.  As  soon  as  the  English 
took  hold  of  the  Arab  breed  and  began 
to  select  both  mares  and  stallions  for  a 
specific  purpose,  namely,  for  high  speed 
at  short  distances,  they  produced  very 
rapid  modifications,  so  that  the  modern 


X  Preface 

thoroughbred  is  a  very  different  creature 
from  its  Arab  ancestor;  in  some  respects 
superior,  in  others  inferior. 

On  the  second  great  question,  in  what 
part  of  the  world  this  noble  breed  lived 
in  its  wild  state,  Ridgeway  has  advanced 
a  largely  original  opinion,  widely  differing 
from  that  of  Blunt  and  other  great  au- 
thorities on  this  subject,  that  the  wild 
ancestor  of  the  Arab  did  not  belong  in 
Arabia  at  all  but  had  its  home  in  Africa, 
especially  in  the  ancient  country  of  Libya, 
lying  west  of  Egypt.  He  goes  so  far  as 
to  give  this  wild  horse  a  distinct  name, 
Equus  lihycus,  in  reference  to  its  Libyan 
home. 

I  am  strongly  inclined  to  believe  that 
Ridgeway  is  right.  He  certainly  brings 
forth  a  great  mass  of  evidence  of  every 
conceivable  kind  that  the  noble  horse 
which  has  been  raising  the  quality  of  the 
horse  blood  of  Europe  and  western  Asia 
from  time  immemorial  came  not  out  of 
Arabia  but  out  of  northern  Africa.  His 
view   is   naturally   directly   opposed   to 


Preface 


XI 


many  of  the  interesting  Arab  traditions 
as  to  the  great  antiquity  of  the  breed  in 
Arabia  proper,  but  Ridgeway  shows  that 
even  Arab  traditions  may  be  interpreted 
to  point  to  a  remote  African  origin. 
Ridgeway' s  work  forces  a  more  careful 
discussion  and  examination  of  this  ques- 
tion than  has  ever  been  made  before, 
and  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  end  in  its 
solution. 

On  sentimental  grounds  it  will  be  hard 
to  take  away  the  Arab  from  what  we 
have  always  considered  its  original  home 
and  regard  it  as  an  importation  into 
Arabia  from  Africa.  This  question  is 
certainly  not  yet  settled;  but  we  may 
regard  it  as  settled  that  whatever  the 
issue  the  so-called  Arabian  is  a  very  an- 
cient breed,  including  characters  which 
were  strongly  established  in  a  natural 
state  before  domestication  by  man,  and 
which,  therefore,  have  such  great  anti- 
quity that  they  are  extremely  stable  in 
heredity  and  cross  breeding. 

The  most  profound  of  these  heredity 


xii  Preface 

characters  are  in  the  skeleton  or  bony 
framework. 

The  skeleton  of  ''Nimr,"  like  that  of 
other  Arabs,  is  distinguished  by  one  less 
vertebra  in  the  back,  a  point  long  ago 
observed  by  Sanson  as  characteristic  of 
the  North  African  horses.  I  also  find  that 
in  the  fore  leg  the  ulna,  or  small  bone  of 
the  fore  leg,  is  complete,  whereas  in  other 
horses  it  ends  in  a  splint.  There  are  only 
sixteen  vertebrae  in  the  tail,  as  compared 
with  eighteen  in  the  tail  of  the  horses  of 
northern  Europe.  Other  characters  are 
the  horizontal  position  of  the  pelvis,  as 
in  most  animals  of  great  speed,  the  large 
size  of  the  brain  case,  relative  shortness 
of  the  skull,  the  slenderness  of  the  lower 
jaw. 

When  one  becomes  once  familiar  with 
the  fine  points  of  the  Arab  he  can  see 
traces  of  the  fine  points  of  this  breed 
impressed  everywhere:  there  is  no  ques- 
tion that  it  has  been  the  uplifting,  en- 
nobling quality  which  has  been  intro- 
duced in  the  blood  of  commoner  horses 


Preface  xiii 

from  a  period  dating  back  from  1600  to 
2000  B.  C. 

To  know  the  Arab  horse  is  to  love  him. 
Those  who,  like  the  author  of  the  present 
work,  are  endeavouring  to  maintain  the 
purity  of  the  original  breed,  and  to  es- 
tablish the  value  of  its  qualities,  are 
rendering  a  substantial,  practical,  and 
theoretical  service. 

Henry  Fairfield  Osborn, 
New  York,  May  16,  1906. 


INTRODUCTION 

Some  years  ago  there  came  into  pos- 
session of  the  writer,  an  old  book.  It 
had  not  very  many  pages,  and  they 
were  yellow  with  age.  One  entire  page 
was   devoted   to   the   title: 

The  Genealogy  of  the  English  Race  Horse ; 
With  the  Natural  History  of  his  Progenitors  from  the 

earliest  times Collected  from  the 

best  Authorities,  etc,,  etc.,  etc. 

By  T.  Hornby  Morland. 

London. 

Printed  by  J.  Barfield,  Waldour  St. 

Printer  to   His  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  of  Wales. 

1810. 

In  common  with  other  writers  who 
have  studied  the  subject,  the  author 
argues  convincingly  that  the  blood  of 
the  pure  Arab  is  the  foundation  upon 
which  the  English  thoroughbred  horse 
has  been  built  by  those  responsible  for 
his  creation  and  improvement.  He 
writes: 

XV 


xvi  Introduction 

* 'Arabian  horses  are  the  most  beauti- 
ful; they  are  larger,  more  muscular,  and 
handsomer  than  the  Barbs.  The  Arabs 
preserve  with  care,  and  for  an  amazing 
length  of  time,  the  races  of  their  horses; 
they  know  all  their  alliances  and  genealo- 
gies. 

"  The  Arabs,  by  long  experience,  know 
all  the  races  of  their  own  horses,  as  well 
as  those  of  their  neighbours." 

Then  follows  a  long  account  of  the 
care  given  to  secure  properly  selected 
mates  inbreeding  their  horses,  the  formal- 
ities observed  when  the  horses  are  bred, 
the  solicitous  painstaking  when  the  foal  is 
born  to  make  certain  his  identity,  so 
that  it  can  never  be  questioned,  the 
methods  of  feeding  and  growth,  of  train- 
ing and  care.  After  setting  out  these 
matters  with  great  detail  he  concludes: 

''From  all  these  facts  it  appears, 
that  Arabian  horses  have  always  been, 
and  still  are,  the  best  horses  in  the  world; 
that  from  them,  or  by  the  mediation  of 
the  Barbs,  are  descended  the  finest  horses 


Introduction  xvii 

in  Europe,  in  Africa,  and  in  Asia;  that 
Arabia  is  not  only  the  original  climate 
for  horses,  but  the  best  suited  for  their 
constitution,  since,  instead  of  crossing 
the  breed  with  foreign  horses,  the  natives 
anxiously  preserve  the  purity  of  their  own 
race;  that,  at  least  if  Arabia  be  not  the 
best  climate  for  horses,  the  Arabs  have 
produced  the  same  effect,  by  the  scrupu- 
lous and  particular  attention  they  have 
paid  toward  ennobling  their  race,  and 
never  permitting  individuals  to  mix, 
which  were  not  most  beautiful  and 
of  finest  quality;  and  that,  by  the 
same  attention  continued  for  ages,  they 
have  improved  the  species  far  beyond 
what  nature  would  have  performed  in  the 
most  favourable  climate/' 

These  words,  written  a  century  ago, 
may  well  serve  as  introduction  in  present- 
ing the  subject  to  be  considered  in  the 
pages  of  this  book.  The  sources  of 
norland's  information  are  unknown  to 
the  present  writer.  That  he  was  well 
informed,  will,  it  is  believed,  become 
apparent  in  what  is  to  follow. 

Professor  Osbom,  in  his  Preface,  calls 


xviii  Introduction 

attention  to  certain  questions  as  worthy 
of  our  consideration.  First:  Are  Arab 
horses  so  different  from  all  others  that 
they  are  a  class  by  themselves,  distinct 
and  separate?  Secondly:  In  what  part 
of  the  world  did  they  first  appear? 

The  latter  question  is  one  for  scientists 
to  settle;  it  is  a  subject  for  academic 
discussion  alone.  Before  we  are  through 
with  the  matters  to  be  presented,  there 
will  probably  be  few  who  will  doubt 
where  Arab  horses  live  at  present  and 
have  been  found  for  hundreds  of  years  in 
a  state  of  pure  breeding.  With  this 
view  Professor  Osbom  is  entirely  in  ac- 
cord, for  he  writes: 

''There  is  no  question  that  it  (the 
Arab  horse)  has  been  the  uplifting,  en- 
nobling quality  which  has  been  introduced 
in  the  blood  of  common  horses  from  a 
period  dating  back  from  1600  to  2000 
B.  C." 

His  statement  not  only  coincides  with 
writings  which  will  be  quoted  of  those 
who  have  studied  the  subject  in  Arabia 


Introduction  xix 

within  our  own  times,  it  is  confirmed 
by  the  discoveries  of  Layard  in  his  exca- 
vations of  Nineveh,  capital  of  the  ancient 
Assyrian  Empire,  on  the  border  land  of 
Arabia  itself.  He  found  bas-reliefs  repre- 
senting men  armed  with  spears,  mounted 
on  horses  of  typical  Arab  conformation 
and  size,  hunting  lions.  It  is  a  curious 
fact  that  no  horse  but  an  Arab  has  ever 
been  found  endowed  with  the  courage  to 
face  a  lion,  but  that  in  our  own  day  Arab 
horses  are  frequently  used  in  hunting  the 
king  of  beasts. 

The  point  of  most  vital  interest  to  the 
present  discussion  is  Professor  Osbom's 
affirmative  answer  to  his  own  first  ques- 
tion. He  expresses  no  doubt  when  he 
declares  ''the  entire  separateness  of  the 
Arab  breed,  produced  by  nature  before 
domestication  by  man.  " 

In  this  he  is  in  entire  accord  with  those 
other  eminent  authorities,  Sansan,  the 
Frenchman,  and  Ridgeway,  the  English 
scientist.  Incidentally,  it  is  of  interest 
that  the  scientific  data  from  which  Pro- 


XX  Introduction 

fessor  Osbom  partially  draws  his  con- 
clusions, were  gathered  by  study  of  the 
skeleton  of  the  great  Arab  horse  Nimr, 
whose  picture,  with  that  of  his  beautiful 
son  Segario,  we  are  able  to  produce  in 
these  pages;  a  horse  for  several  years  in 
possession  of,  and  ridden  by,  the  writer  of 
these  lines. 


THE  ARAB  HORSE 


CHAPTER  I 

Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia 

FOR  many  years  in  Russia,  Hungary, 
France,  Germany  and  other 
countries  on  the  continent  of 
Europe,  Arabian  horses  have  been  valued 
at  their  true  worth,  and  studs  devoted 
to  their  production  have  been  maintained 
at  pubHc  expense. 

Peter  the  Great  estabUshed  the  Im- 
perial Russian  Stud,  and  with  his  suc- 
cessors sought  at  all  times  to  strengthen 
it  by  new  infusions  of  pure  Arab  blood. 
Captain  Ismailoff,  who  was  sent  by  the 
Russian  Government  with  horses  to  be 
shown  at  the  Columbian  Exposition  at 
Chicago  in  1893,  tells  us  that  as  early 
as  1772  Catherine  the  Great  had  in  the 
Imperial  Stud,  under  care  of  Count 
Orloff-Tchestmensky,  twelve  pure  Arab 
stallions,  and  ten  Arab  mares. 


4  The  Arab  Horse 

In  our  day  the  Hungarian  Government 
contributes  annually  $50,000  as  added 
money  to  the  Budapest  race  meetings, 
and  $10,000  additional  to  meetings  in  the 
provinces,  for  the  purpose  of  encouraging 
the  breeding  of  superior  horses.  Not 
only  so,  the  Government  maintains  not 
less  than  four  great  breeding  studs  at  the 
public  expense,  under  direction  of  Prince 
Louis  Esterhazy.  Of  these,  one  at  Bab- 
olna  is  devoted  exclusively  to  pure  bred 
and  half  bred  Arabs,  and  much  Arab 
blood  is  also  found  in  the  other  three. 
Babolna  was  made  a  separate  stud,  an 
offshoot  from  Mezohegyes  in  1789;  and 
at  Mezohegyes  in  18 10  there  were  13,386 
animals,  supplying  at  that  time  a  thous- 
sand  cavalry  remounts  annually  to  the 
army. 

The  influence  of  these  stu4s  of  Arab 
horses  was  forcibly  illustrated  in  1892, 
at  the  time  of  the  famous  long  distance 
race  of  cavalry  officers  between  Berlin 
and  Vienna.  The  Prussians  starting  at 
Berlin   rode   to   Vienna,    the   Austrians 


Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia      5 

started  at  Vienna,  and  rode  to  Berlin. 
The  winner  of  the  race  was  Maresa,  a 
brown  gelding  owned  and  ridden  by  an 
Austrian.  He  was  a  small  Magyar  horse, 
bred  in  a  private  stud  on  the  Stukweissen- 
berge  Comitat,  his  sire  a  Gidran,  his  dam 
an  undersized  Hotsul  or  Hocul  mare. 
The  mare  had  been  given  by  her  breeder 
to  one  of  the  czikos  or  mounted  stockmen, 
who  herd  the  mobs  of  mares  that  graze 
on  the  mountains.  One  night  a  burglary 
took  place  some  ten  German  miles  (fifty 
English  miles)  from  the  stud  to  which 
this  horse  herd  was  attached.  Witnesses 
swore  they  had  seen  him  in  the  act  of 
robbing;  but  other  reputable  witnesses, 
a  number  of  them,  were  able  to  verify 
the  fact  that  the  man  was  seen  at  his 
post  at  eight  in  the  evening  and  four  in 
the  morning  of  the  night  of  the  burglary, 
the  alibi  was  decided  to  have  been 
established,  and  the  man  was  acquitted 
of  the  charge.  Shortly  afterward  the 
fellow  became  seriously  ill  and  thought 
himself  about  to  die.     He  then  confessed 


6  The  Arab  Horse 

that  he  was  indeed  the  robber;  and  told 
that  he  had  ridden  his  mare  the  fifty 
miles  over  the  mountains  and  fifty  miles 
return  in  seven  hours,  besides  having 
committed  the  crime. 

These  Hotsuls  are  nearly  the  only 
known  tribe  of  riding  mountaineers. 
Their  little  horses  are  noted  for  great 
weight-carrying  power,  are  active,  wiry, 
sure-footed,  untiring,  and  very  gentle. 
They  are  descended  from  the  high  caste 
Arab  horses  brought  into  the  Carpathians 
by  the  Turks,  who  have  invaded  the 
country  no  less  than  ninety  times  within 
five  hundred  years.  They  are  generally 
black,  bay  or  black-brown,  and  from 
13  hands  2  inches  to  14.2  high.  They 
are  said  to  be  the  best  shooting  ponies 
in  the  world,  and  can  endure  great  hard- 
ships, never  tasting  grain,  and  are  pas- 
ured  on  mountains  where  there  is  said  to 
be  no  day  without  rain.  Bred  in  the 
neighbouring  stud  of  Radautz,  or  at  that 
of  Mezohegyes,  the  Gidran — more  pro- 
perly Jedran,  one  of   the  highest  caste 


Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia       7 

of  Arab  families — is  either  of  pure  desert 
blood,  or  an  Arab  crossed  on  select  Eng- 
lish thoroughbred  mares.  Those  bred 
at  Radautz  range  in  freedom  over  the 
wild  Carpathian  plateaux  during  the 
summer,  and  one  of  these  was  the  sire, 
the  little  robber  Hotsul  mare  the  dam,  of 
Maresa,  who  carried  his  rider  from  Vienna 
to  Berlin,  four  hundred  and  twenty-five 
miles,  between  Monday  morning  and  the 
following  Thursday  noon. 

Not  only  so,  but  the  Prussian  officer  to 
whom  was  awarded  the  gold  medal  for 
having  the  horse  which  should  finish  the 
journey  in  the  best  condition,  Lieut.  W. 
von  Gaffein,  was  mounted  on  a  horse  of 
similar  breeding,  a  brown  gelding  fifteen 
hands  high,  bred  by  Count  Potocki  in 
Galicia.  Though  Maresa  made  the  jour- 
ney in  two  or  three  hours  less  time.  Von 
Gaffein's  horse  came  through  apparently 
uninjured  by  the  cruel  test,  whose  severity 
can  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  of  one 
hundred  and  seventeen  Prussian  officers 
to  start,  only  seventy-one  reached  their 


8  The  Arab  Horse 

goal,   the  horses  of  the  other  forty-six 
dying  en  route. 

There  is  then  some  slight  compensation 
for  the  afflicted  countries  of  the  Balkan 
peninsula,  so  often  the  scene  of  Turkish 
rapine,  in  the  fact  that  when  driven  out 
the  Turks  left  good  horses  behind  them. 
Constantinople  was  captured  by  Mo- 
hammed II.  in  1453.  His  successors 
Bajazet  II.  and  Selim  I.  conquered  Meso- 
potamia, and  overran  Syria,  Palestine 
and  Egypt.  Selim  also  won  a  great 
victory  over  the  sheik  of  Mecca,  Lord  of 
Nejd,  so  putting  him  in  possession  of 
some  of  the  finest  horses  in  the  world. 
In  1522  the  Turks  invaded  Hungary, 
500,000  strong,  including  in  the  army 
their  terrible  cavalry  squadrons  number- 
ing 300,000  horsemen.  Having  twice 
besieged  Vienna,  the  wave  of  Mohamme- 
dan conquest  was  finally  rolled  back  on 
itself  by  the  great  victory  won  under 
Jan  Sobeiski,  King  of  Poland.  It  is  told 
that  when  Mustapha  was  finally  repulsed 
from  Vienna,  the  Turkish  Vizier  lost  his 


Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia       g 

own  war  horse,  and  that  when  finally 
driven  from  the  country  he  left  behind 
him  ''horses  of  rare  value.'' 

From  that  day  to  the  present  time  the 
great  nobles  of  Hungary  demand  the  best 
of  Arabian  blood  in  their  stables;    and 
even  now  a  Bedouin  is  attached  to  the 
Hungarian   Army   as   master   of   horse, 
having  the  rank  of  major,  charged  with 
the  duty  of  selecting  the  best  of  Arabian 
horses  for  the  royal  studs.     Since  these 
were  established,   in   1785,   the  animals 
have  been  chosen   for  their  symmetry, 
power  and  action.     A  careful  record  of 
their  pedigrees  has  been  kept  and  the 
breeding  carried  on  by  a  scheme  of  in- 
telligent selection.     Outside  the  govern- 
ment breeding  establishments  there  are 
to-day  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  private  studs,  in  which  are  to  be 
found  5,000  Arab  mares  of  purest  blood. 
In   Germany   and   France,    also,    im- 
portant   studs    of    Arabian    horses    are 
maintained  at  the  public  expense.     Some 
of  the  animals  from  the  stud  of  the  King 


lo  The  Arab  Horse 

of  Wurtemburg  were  brought  to  the 
United  States,  and  are  owned  by  Mr. 
Heyl  of  Milwaukee,  who  showed  them 
at  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago 
in  1893.  The  French  have  extensive 
heras  of  Arab  horses  both  in  France  and 
in  Algeria.  In  the  days  of  Napoleon  III. 
whole  regiments  of  chasseurs  mounted  on 
Arab  horses  could  be  seen  at  the  great 
French  army  manoeuvres. 

The  greater  number  of  Arabs  imported 
to  America  in  late  years  having  come 
from  England,  the  history  of  the  Arabian 
horse  in  Great  Britain  seems  to  call  for 
somewhat  extended  consideration. 

John  Lawrence,  whose  ''History  and 
Delineation  of  the  Horse"  was  published 
in  1809  is  one  of  the  earliest  writers  on 
this  subject.  From  him  we  learn  that 
James  I.,  Charles  L,  Oliver  Cromwell, 
Charles  II.  and  James  II.  were  all  inter- 
ested in  horse  breeding,  and  all  looked  to 
the  pure  Arab  horse  as  the  source  of  im- 
proving blood.  The  list  of  horses  and 
mares  brought  by  them  to  England  from 


Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia      ii 

the  East  is  a  long  one,  the  ''  Royal  Mares" 
being  at  the  foundation  of  the  English 
thoroughbred  horse  of  to-day.  It  was 
in  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  however, 
that  the  famous  Darley  Arabian  was  sent 
from  Aleppo  by  Mr.  Barley's  brother  a 
merchant  of  that  city,  procured  by  him 
near  Palmyra  from  the  wandering  Be- 
douins. Within  twenty  years  the  papers 
have  been  found  which  came  with  this 
famous  horse,  confirming  the  independent 
information  obtained  by  H.  M.  Consul 
General  at  Aleppo,  concerning  the  family 
to  which  the  horse  belonged. 

The  Byerly  Turk  was  brought  to  Eng- 
land some  years  before  the  Darley  Ara- 
bian, and  the  Godolphin  Arabian  came 
a  few  years  after  him,  in  1726.  These 
three  horses  of  Eastern  origin  have  always 
been  considered  the  blood  that  produced 
the  modem  English  race  horse,  the 
Arabians  being  the  more  prized.  John 
Lawrence    wrote    in    1809: 

''But  the  fame  of  these  two  great 
Arabians,    the    Darley    and    Godolphin, 


12  The  Arab  Horse 

has  almost  swallowed  up  that  of  the 
rest;  and  our  best  horses,  for  nearly  a 
century  past  have  been  either  deeply  im- 
bued with  their  blood,  or  entirely  derived 
from  it/* 

Time  has  made  the  truth  of  this  asser- 
tion even  more  impressive.  Not  only  so, 
but  the  process  of  elimination  has  gone 
on  till  the  Darley  Arabian  blood  has 
become  paramount  even  over  that  of 
the  Godolphin,  several  of  whose  sons  and 
grandsons  came  to  America  in  the  early 
days,  and  were  highly  prized  in  South 
Carolina. 

Touchstone  in  his  great  book,  pub- 
lished by  subscription  in  1890,  whose 
preface  was  written  by  the  Duke  of 
Beaufort,  remarks  (page  13): 

"It  is  certain  that  when  a  thorough- 
bred is  taken  out  of  training  early, 
when  he  is  no  longer  subjected  to  that 
special  regime  which  changes  his  out- 
ward form  and  modifies  his  constitution, 
he  reverts  to  the  Arab  type  with  astonish- 
ing  rapidity." 

And  again: 


Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia      13 

"Among  the  Eastern  stallions  which 
are  the  originators  of  the  thorough- 
bred of  the  present  day,  the  eldest  is  the 
Arab  horse  purchased  by  Mr.  Darley, 
a  commission  agent  at  Aleppo,  and  a 
thorough  paced  sportsman,  to  whose 
influence  and  energy  is  due  in  large 
measure  the  reaction  which  took  place 
in  England  at  the  beginning  of  the  eight- 
teenth  century  in  favour  of  animals  of 
Eastern  origin.  In  the  course  of  a  hunt- 
ing excursion  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Aleppo,  Mr.  Darley  met  an  Arab,  who 
was  riding  a  very  remarkable  horse, 
whose  speed,  endurance  and  lightness 
gave  him  the  appearance  of  being  a 
faultless  animal. 

**In  exchange  for  an  English  musket, 
a  weapon  very  little  known  in  the  East, 
and  a  good  round  sum  of  money,  Manicka, 
as  this  superb  animal  was  called,  became 
the  property  of  Mr.  Darley,  who  sent 
him  to  his  brother,  Mr.  John  Brewster 
Darley,  of  Aldby  Park,  York,  where  he 
arrived  in  the  beginning  of  1712  (1705  ? 
S.-B.),  he  being  at  that  time  four  years 
old.  .  .  .  His  two  best  representatives, 
Flying  Childers  and  Bartlett  Childers, 
bred  by  Mr.   Charles  Childers  of  Carr 


14  The  Arab  Horse 

House,  were  purchased  by  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire  and  Mr.  Bartlett. 

''There  is  no  authentic  portrait  of  the 
Darley  Arabian,  and  we  are  unable  there- 
fore to  reproduce  him  side  by  side  with 
his  rival,  the  Godolphin  Arabian.  The 
important  part  which  he  played  in  the 
formation  of  a  pure  breed  must  be  our 
excuse  for  this  digression,  and  we  may  add 
that  he  was  a  dark  bay  with  white  mark- 
ings on  the  two  near  legs  and  a  long  blaze 
on  the  head.  He  was  about  fifteen  hands 
high,  with  a  large  head,  well  developed 
haunches,  plenty  of  length,  and  unex- 
ceptionable limbs.  He  was  in  fact,  both 
on  the  paternal  and  maternal  side,  of 
the  breed  held  in  highest  esteem  by  the 
Arabs. 

"  Thanks  to  Mr.  Darley,  a  fresh  impulse 
was  given,  and  it  was  not  destined  to 
receive  any  further  check.  The  foundation 
of  the  Jockey  Club  in  1781  was  the 
final  consecration  of  the  work  thus  begun." 

Major  Roger  Upton,  with  whom  the 
reader  is  to  become  quite  well  acquainted, 
is  most  emphatic  in  his  tribute  to  the 
Darley  Arabian.  He  writes  ("New- 
market and  Arabia,"  page  84): 


Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia     15 

"In  itself  I  cannot  help  considering 
the  line  from  the  Godolphin  Arab  or 
Barb  a  very  poor  one,  and,  like  that  from 
the  Byerly  Turk,  it  really  owes  what 
celebrity  it  may  have,  and  its  continuance, 
to  the  infusions  of  blood  it  has  received 
from  the  descendants  of  the  Darley 
Arabian.  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  although 
not  extraordinary,  that  almost  in  pro- 
portion to  the  amount  of  Darley  Arabian 
blood  has  been  the  success  of  the  indi- 
viduals of  this  line.'* 

By  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 
it  was  capable  of  proof  by  statisticians 
giving  their  attention  to  the  subject,  such 
as  Mr.  Bruce  Lowe  and  Mr.  W.  A.  Allison 
who  had  worked  out  the  famous  ''  Figure 
System"  for  the  guidance  of  race  horse 
breeders,  that  of  the  winners  of  the 
"  Classic  "  English  races  (the  Derby,  Oaks, 
and  St.  Leger),  since  their  establishment, 
covering  a  period  of  a  hundred  years, 
more  than  ninety-five  per  cent,  were  de- 
scendants in  the  male  line  from  the  Dar- 
ley Arabian,  and  thoroughly  saturated 
with  his  blood. 


1 6  The  Arab  Horse 

Recognition  of  the  preponderating  in- 
fluence of  this  prepotent  animal  was  made 
in  a  most  practical  manner  both  in  Eng- 
land and  America  between  1850  and  i860, 
America  acting  first.  In  1855  the  New 
Orleans  Jockey  Club,  at  a  meeting  at  the 
old  Metaire  Race  Course,  asked  Mr.  Keene 
Richards  of  Kentucky  to  go  to  Arabia 
and  try  to  secure  some  of  the  coveted 
blood.  About  the  same  time.  Admiral 
Rous  of  England,  having  conferred  with 
other  great  breeders,  secured  the  ap- 
pointment of  Mr.  W.  S.  Skene  as  H.  M. 
Consul  General  at  Aleppo.  He  went 
with  the  definite  purpose  of  cultivating 
the  friendship  of  the  Bedouin  tribes, 
especially  of  the  Anazah,  the  great  breed- 
ing tribes  of  the  desert,  and  of  learning 
from  them,  if  possible,  the  family  of 
horses  that  produced  the  Darley  Arabian, 
also  if  more  of  the  same  blood  could  be 
obtained.  A  few  years  later.  Captain 
(afterward  Major)  Roger  D.  Upton,  of 
the  7  th  Lancers  impressed  by  the  superi- 
ority of  the  Turkish  cavalry  in  the  Crim- 


Arab  Horses  Outside  of  Arabia     17 

ean  War,  because  of  their  better  mounts, 
urged  upon  the  British  War  Office  that 
England  should  procure  Arab  blood  to 
freshen  up  the  horses  of  the  country- 
become  tender  weeds  only  fit  to  run  dash 
races — so  providing  suitable  remounts 
for  the  British  cavalry. 

Both  Skene  and  Upton  were  fine  Arabic 
scholars,  besides  being  excellent  horse- 
men. 

For  nearly  twenty  years  Mr.  Skene 
remained  at  his  post,  cultivating  the 
acquaintance  of  the  Arab  Sheiks  who 
came  to  trade  at  Aleppo,  making  long 
journeys  with  them  into  the  desert, 
assisting  them  in  their  intercourse  with 
the  Turkish  Government  officials.  At 
one  time  he  saved  the  life  of  Suleiman 
ibu  Mirshid,  Sheik  of  Sheiks  of  all  the 
Anazah  tribes  of  the  Bedouins,  and  later 
he  interfered  to  save  the  life  of  another 
great  Sheik,  Jedaan.  Indeed,  so  fast 
was  the  friendship  he  established  with 
them,  that  they  adopted  him  as  a  brother 
by  formal  rites.     After  eighteen  years 


1 8  The  Arab  Horse 

of  this  service  Mr.  Skene  was  able  to 
write  to  Admiral  Rous,  that  he  was  cer- 
tain of  the  family  of  horses  which  pro- 
duced the  Darley  Arabian,  and  his 
friendship  with  the  Anazah  tribes  made 
it  possible  to  procure  a  limited  number 
of  choice  animals. 

On  receipt  of  the  news,  Admiral  Rous 
communicated  with  certain  English 
breeders,  and  a  syndicate  of  three,  com- 
posed of  the  Hon.  Henry  Chaplin,  Min- 
ister of  Agriculture,  Mr.  Sandeman,  M. 
P.,  and  Mr.  Hazelwood,  a  director  of  the 
Bank  of  England,  agreed  to  send  Major 
Upton  to  Aleppo  to  Mr.  Skene,  they  to 
go  into  the  desert  and  choose  and  secure 
the  horses.  It  is  reported  that  the  final 
cost  of  the  undertaking  was  ;£2o,ooo 
($100,000). 


CHAPTER  II 

Arabia,  and  Some  of  the 
Bedouins 

AT  THE  northeastern  comer  of  the 
•^  ^  Mediterranean  Sea,  -just  below  the 
point  where  the  southern  coast  of  Asia 
Minor  joins  the  western  coast  of  Syria, 
lies  the  town  of  Scanderoon,  the  ancient 
city  of  Alexandretta.  This  is  the  seaport 
for  Aleppo,  ancient  Haleb,  about  one  hun- 
dred miles  to  the  east  and  a  little  south, 
for  centuries  a  trading  centre  whence  go 
caravans  of  merchandise  to  the  towns  far 
down  the  jEuphrates,  and  where  are 
brought  the  grains  and  wool  that  come  in 
return.  Almost  due  east  of  Scanderoon, 
about  five  hundred  miles  distant,  is  Mosul, 
on  the  River  Tigris,  which  from  this  point 
flows  south  and  a  little  easterly  about  four 
hundred  miles  till  it  joins  the  Euphrates 
near  Bussorah,  the  two  rivers  thus  joined 
19 


20  The  Arab  Horse 

flowing  into  the  Persian  Gulf.  About 
two  hundred  miles  below  Mosul  is 
Bagdad,  also  on  the  Tigris  River.  The 
Euphrates  and  Tigris  nearly  unite  at 
this  point,  but  again  separate  to  join 
farther  down,  as  already  noted.  Still 
farther  east,  nearly  parallel  with  the 
Tigris  is  the  western  frontier  of  Persia. 

The  line  from  Scanderoon  to  Mosul 
may  be  taken  as  the  northern  boundary 
of  Arabia.  The  western  frontier  of 
Persia,  then  the  Persian  Gulf  and  the 
Gulf  of  Oman,  mark  its  eastern  boundary. 
On  the  south  lies  the  Indian  Ocean.  On 
the  west  are  the  Red  Sea,  Palestine,  and 
Syria.  From  this  rapid  sketch  one  can 
get  an  idea  of  the  great  area  of  the  country. 
Coming  in  at  the  northwestern  comer 
from  the  mountains  of  Asia  Minor,  the 
Euphrates  River  crosses  the  upper  end  of 
Arabia  at  a  slant  from  northwest  to  south- 
east, and  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates 
has  for  thousands  of  years  been  a  most 
important  route  of  Communication  be- 
tween the  Orient  and  western  nations. 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins  21 

Indeed,  until  the  discovery  of  the  way 
around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  later 
the  construction  of  the  Suez  Canal,  it  was 
the  only  route  and  its  cities  were  the 
great  centres  of  commerce  for  the  world. 

When  we  speak  of  Arabia  we  are  apt 

to  forget  what  the  country  once  stood 

for.     Between  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates 

is  the  land  of  Mesopotamia.     Here  was 

believed   to   have  been  the   Garden   of 

Eden — whatever   that   may   mean — the 

place   whence   the   human   race   spread 

abroad  to  populate  the  earth.     Mosul, 

already  mentioned,  is  the  site  of  Nineveh, 

capital   of  the  great  Assyrian  Empire. 

Fifty  miles  south  of  Bagdad  are  the  ruins 

of  Babylon,  where  the  children  of  Israel 

were  in  captivity,  and  within  ten  miles 

of  Babylon  are  still  to  be  seen  the  remains 

of   the  Tower  of  Babel.     El  Uz,  below 

Bagdad,  on  the  Euphrates,  was  the  home 

of  Job;  and  from  Chaldea,  east   of  the 

Euphrates,  came  Abraham,  father  of  the 

Hebrew  race. 

Through  this  land  Alexander  the  Great 


22  The  Arab  Horse 

marched  to  the  conquest  of  India,  after 
having  overthrown  the  Babylonian  Em- 
pire. In  a  straight  Hne  west  of  Deyr 
on  the  Euphrates,  and  half  way  between 
that  point  and  Damascus,  is  Tadmur, 
the  ancient  Palmyra,  capital  city  of 
Zenobia,  that  Queen  who  was  conquered 
by  Aurelian,  and  carried  away  to  Rome 
to  grace  his  triumphal  entry. 

Later  in  the  Christian  Era  Mohammed 
established  his  religion  at  Mecca  and 
Medina,  far  down  in  the  Arabian  pen- 
insula. The  Mohammedan  Khaliphs  after- 
ward made  Bagdad  their  capital,  and 
held  a  court  there  that  was  glittering  in 
riches,  the  home  of  art,  science,  poetry; 
the  scene  of  the  Arabian  Nights  Enter- 
tainments until  Timour  the  Tartar  with 
his  hordes  of  barbarians  poured  down 
from  the  North  and  drowned  the  country 
in  blood.  In  ancient  days  this  country 
was  the  home  of  science.  Some  of  the 
earliest  astronomers  were  Arabs  of  Chal- 
dea,  and  our  present  system  of  num- 
erals, which  makes  modern  mathematical 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins  23 

calculations  possible,  the  decimal  system, 
was  an  Arabian  invention,  brought  to 
the  Western  world  by  the  Saracenic 
invasion  of  Palestine,  upper  Africa,  and 
Europe,  which  was  an  Arabian  over- 
running. 

What  is  most  germane  to  our  present 
investigation,  however,  is  the  fact  that 
this  country  is  the  place  where  the  horse 
has  attained  his  highest  perfection;  where 
he  has  been  bred  pure  by  a  careful  system 
of  selection  adhered  to  for  hundreds  of 
years,  a  system  not  departed  from  in  the 
slightest  degree.  It  has  come  to  be 
acknowledged  by  the  most  intelligent 
breeders  that  thorough  breeding  in  horses 
is  chiefly  a  calculation  of  the  amount  of 
Arab  blood  they  possess,  just  as  gold 
stands  as  a  measure  of  value  in  the  cur- 
rency of  a  country,  the  value  of  a  coin 
consisting  of  the  amount  of  gold  it  con- 
tains. 

The  oldest  and  most  exclusive  registry 
in  the  world — the  one  at  the  foundation 
of  all  more  recent  works  of  the  kind  is 


24  The  Arab  Horse 

"Weatherby^s  General  Stud  Book  of 
Thoroughbred  Horses,"  the  only  recog- 
nised organ  of  the  English  Jockey  Club. 
The  makers  of  that  Stud  Book  recognised 
in  the  beginning,  and  to-day  make  the 
specific  statement  in  writing  that  ''Native 
Arabs,  with  the  Barbs,  are  the  source  from 
whence  the  race  horse  springs." 

The  history  of  the  Arab  horse  is  not 
merely  the  romantic  tale  of  imaginative 
writers,  though  poets  have  sung  his  praises, 
artists  have  painted  his  graceful  form  on 
canvas,  and  sculptors  have  made  use  of 
him  as  their  model.  Job  describes  him 
in  words  that  could  apply  to  no  other 
horse  and  the  horses  from  the  frieze  of 
the  Parthenon  at  Athens,  the  Elgin 
Marbles  now  in  the  British  Museum,  could 
have  been  modelled  from  none  but 
Arabians. 

It  is  fortunate,  however,  that  before  it 
was  too  late,  careful  travellers,  scholars 
and  horsemen,  such  as  Major  Roger 
Upton  and  the  Blunts,  have  visited  the 
land  of  the  Arab  horse  and  written  in 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins  25 

books  what  they  learned  from  original 
sources  of  this  interesting  subject. 

Upton  and  the  Blunts  both  made  two 
journeys  to  Arabia  in  the  years  between 
1870  and  1880.  In  both  of  Upton's 
journeys  he  had  the  company  and  as- 
sistance of  H.  M.  Consul  General  at  Alep- 
po, Mr.  Skene.  His  wanderings  were  ex- 
tended both  in  distance  and  in  time.  Hon. 
Henry  Chaplin,  former  Minister  of  Agri- 
culture in  Great  Britain,  breeder  and 
owner  of  the  famous  Derby  winner  Her- 
mit, tells  us  that  Upton  went  a  thousand 
miles  into  the  desert  south  of  Tadmur  to 
get  the  horses  procured  for  him,  and 
he  was  gone  two  years.  Both  Chaplin 
and  the  Weatherbys  are  sponsors  for 
the  truth  of  every  statement  made  by 
Upton. 

After  Upton  went  Mr.  Wilfrid  Scawen 
Blunt  and  his  wife.  Lady  Anne  Blunt,  a 
granddaughter  of  Lord  Byron.  Their 
first  journey  was  in  the  winter  of  1877-78, 
three  years  after  Upton,  and  they  covered 
much  of  the  same  ground  as  he,  meeting 


26  The  Arab  Horse 

many  of  the  same  people,  though  they 
went  also  further  east  than  Upton. 
Leaving  Aleppo  in  January,  1878,  they 
reached  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  as 
soon  as  possible,  then  followed  the  river 
as  far  as  Bagdad.  From  Aleppo  to  Deyr 
they  had  the  company  of  Mr.  Skene,  who 
went  with  Upton.  Then  he  turned  back 
to  Aleppo  as  his  consular  prerogatives 
went  no  further  in  that  direction,  the 
Blunts  proceeding  to  Bagdad  alone. 
From  that  point,  after  crossing  the  Tigris 
River  they  went  north  and  east  to  Shergat, 
nearly  up  to  Mosul,  traversing  a  quite 
new  country  for  Western  voyagers.  At 
Shergat  they  turned  west  to  again  come 
to  Deyr,  where  Mr.  Skene  had  agreed  to 
meet  them  on  a  fixed  day.  This  he  was 
unable  to  do.  He  was  old,  infirm,  and, 
while  waiting,  his  successor  came  from 
England,  so  he  was  detained.  The 
Blunts  were  most  anxious  to  go  among 
the  Anazah  Bedouins,  with  whom  Upton 
spent  the  greater  part  of  his  time,  and  to 
meet  such  of  his  friends  as  they  might, 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins  27 

being  especially  anxious  to  see  Jedaan, 
their  War  Sheik — known  as  the  "Rob 
Roy  of  the  Desert."  After  great  dif- 
ficulties they  got  away  from  Deyr,  and 
in  due  time  reached  Tadmur,  about  half 
way  in  the  direct  line  between  Deyr  and 
Damascus.  Near  this  point  Mr.  Skene 
overtook  them,  went  with  them  among 
the  Anazah,  helped  them  to  buy  horses 
and  continued  with  them  to  Damascus. 
From  that  point  the  Blunts  returned  to 
England  via  Beirut,  Mr.  Skene  went 
back  to  Aleppo.  The  next  winter  found 
the  Blunts  again  at  Damascus,  from  which 
point  they  made  a  journey  across  the 
southern  desert  to  Nejd,  a  part  of  the 
world  not  reached  by  Upton;  in  fact  a 
place  that  no  more  than  half  a  dozen 
Europeans  are  known  to  have  ever  seen. 

The  results  of  Upton's  visit  were  writ- 
ten in  two  books,  "Newmarket  and 
Arabia,"  a  sketchy  statement  of  early 
impressions,  and  a  more  serious  work, 
"Gleanings  from  the  Desert  of  Arabia," 
published  after  his  death;    now,  unfor- 


28  The  Arab  Horse 

tunately,  out  of  print,  and  copies  ex- 
tremely difficult  to  obtain. 

Lady  Anne  Blunt  also  wrote  two  books 
of  absorbing  interest,  ''The  Bedouin 
Tribes  of  the  Euphrates,"  a  journal  of  her 
first  journey,  and  the  ''Pilgrimage  to 
Nejd/'  the  story  of  the  second.  No  one 
can  read  these  books  without  being  im- 
pressed with  the  veracity  and  intelligence 
of  the  writers.  Weatherbey  &  Sons, 
publishers  of  the  "General  Stud  Book,"  say 
that  they  consider  Mr.  Wilfrid  S.  Blunt 
and  Lady  Anne  Blunt  the  foremost  living 
authorities  on  Arab  horses.  On  these 
sources  of  information  the  present  writing 
in  large  measure  depends,  wherever 
they  touch  the  matter  in  hand. 

Some  of  the  individuals  met  by  Upton 
and  the  Blunts  were  most  interesting 
personages.  Their  introduction  to  the 
reader  will  help  him  to  appreciate  the 
sources  of  information,  and  the  sur- 
roundings whence  came  many  very  great 
mares  and  stallions. 

The  Anazah  Bedouins  have  always  been 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins   29 

the  greatest  horse  breeders.  Each  tribe 
of  the  Anazah  has  its  individual  leader  or 
Sheik,  and  at  the  time  of  Upton's  visit 
all  the  tribes  of  Anazah  were  united  under 
one  very  remarkable  man  named  Sulei- 
man ibn  Mirshid,  who  was  called  the 
Sheik  of  Sheiks.  He  was  not  only  a 
great  warrior,  but  also  a  wise  adminis- 
trator of  the  internal  affairs  of  the  tribes. 
Some  years  before  the  time  of  Upton's 
visit  the  Shammar  tribes  had  been  united 
also  under  a  great  leader  named  Abd-ul- 
Kerim.  The  Shammar  were  Bedouins 
who  came  originally  from  Nejd,  one 
thousand  or  fifteen  hundred  miles  lower 
down  in  the  Arabian  peninsula.  Some- 
thing more  than  two  hundred  years  ago, 
under  the  guidance  of  a  Sheik  named 
Paris,  they  had  come  north  with  their 
flocks  and  camels,  invading  the  pasture 
lands  always  occupied  by  the  Anazah. 
These  latter  did  not  hesitate  to  wage  war 
on  the  Shammar,  and  drove  them  across 
the  Euphrates  into  Mesopotamia,  to  a 
point    near   Mosul.     Abd-ul-Kerim   was 


30  The  Arab  Horse 

the  descendant  of  that  Paris  in  the  sixth 
generation,  and  inherited  the  feud  that 
always  existed  between  the  Shammar  and 
the  Anazah,  periodical  raids  across  the 
river  being  the  consequence,  in  both 
directions;  the  land  between  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  being  considered  the  home 
of  the  Shammar,  that  between  the  Eu- 
phrates and  Damascus,  and  reaching 
from  the  neighbourhood  of  Aleppo  far 
south  toward  Jebel  Shammar,  being  the 
pasture  lands  conceded  to  the  Anazah. 
The  vital  importance  of  protecting  these 
pastures  and  the  necessity  for  extensive 
ranges  will  be  understood  as  we  read  from 
Lady  Anne  Blunt's  first  book,  that  she 
saw  together  in  one  place  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  camels,  besides  thousands 
of  sheep  and  many  horses,  all  the  prop- 
erty of  a  single  tribe  of  Anazah,  the 
Roala,  whose  tents  covered  an  area  of 
12  square  miles.  These  great  encamp- 
ments had  to  be  moved  every  few  days 
because  the  pasturage  was  eaten  down 
to  the  bare  ground  in  very  short  order 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins  31 

by   the    thousands    of    animals   feeding 
thereon. 

Yet  Abd-ul-Kerim,  though  bound  by- 
hereditary  obligation  to  fight  the  Anazah 
whenever  and  wherever  they  met,  regarded 
the  amenites  of  life,  and  his  honour  be- 
came a  proverb  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  desert.  It  happened  that 
at  one  period  of  his  life,  in  his  boyhood, 
he  lived  among  the  Anazah  in  the  tents 
of  Jedaan's  father.  So,  though  when 
they  had  grown  to  manhood  these  two 
were  bound  to  be  always  at  war,  Abd- 
ul-Kerim  never  forgot  his  affection  for 
his  boyhood  friend.  It  happened  then 
that  Abd-ul-Kerim,  in  the  course  of  the 
civil  war,  caught  Jedaan's  forces  in  such 
a  position  that  they  were  at  his  mercy. 
The  trap  was  to  be  sprung  on  the  morrow 
and  Abd-ul-Kerim  meant  to  push  his 
advantage  to  the  utmost.  Yet  he  wanted 
to  spare  Jedaan  individually.  Therefore, 
the  night  preceding  the  day  of  the  climax, 
he  sent  one  of  his  men  to  Jedaan's  camp 
with  his  own  white  mare,  bearing  a  mes- 


32  The  Arab  Horse 

sage  to  Jedaan  that  the  morrow  meant 
certain  defeat  for  the  Anazah,  and  begging 
him  to  accept  Abd-ul-Kerim's  mare,  and 
to  ride  her  in  the  battle,  as  she  was 
swifter  than  any  animal  belonging  to  the 
Shammar  forces  and  could  take  him 
safely  away.  This  Jedaan  did  and  saved 
himself.  Upton  saw  Abd-ul-Kerim's 
mare  in  his  possession  when  he  visited 
the  Anazah  in  1875,  and  describes  her. 

Shortly  afterward  Abd-ul-Kerim,  who 
had  been  successful  in  defeating  the  Turks 
who  sought  to  subdue  the  Shammar,  was 
betrayed  into  their  hands  by  his  secretary, 
an  Armenian.  They  hung  him  from  the 
bridge  at  Mosul. 

His  brother  Farhan,  a  reprobate,  sub- 
mitted to  the  Turks,  accepted  from  them 
the  title  of  Pasha,  and  at  the  time  of  the 
visit  of  the  Blunts  to  Mesopotamia  was  in 
receipt  from  them  of  a  salary  of  ;£3,ooo 
per  annum. 

The  more  noble  of  the  Shammar,  how- 
ever, joined  themselves  to  a  younger 
brother  named  Paris,  who  declared  unend- 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins  ^2> 

ing  war  on  the  Turks  and  all  who  held  to 
Turks.  He  was  visited  by  the  Blunts, 
adopted  Mr.  Blunt  as  his  brother,  by 
solemn  rites,  and  is  described  by  Lady 
Anne  Blunt  as  a  most  brave,  courteous 
and  intelligent  genteman  of  distinguished 
appearance  and  manners. 

It  is  this  policy  of  ''  divide  and  conquer'* 
that  has  marked  the  entire  intercourse  of 
the  Turks  with  the  Bedouins.  So  long 
as  Suleiman  ibn  Mirshid  lived  he  kept 
the  Anazah  tribes  solidly  combined. 
Shortly  after  Upton's  visit,  however,  and 
a  little  time  before  that  of  the  Blunts, 
he  allowed  himself  to  accept  an  invitation 
from  the  Turkish  Governor  at  Deyr,  to 
visit  the  town  and  make  a  treaty  of  com- 
merce between  his  tribes  and  the  Turks, 
for  exchange  of  products.  At  a  banquet 
which  was  served  to  mark  the  close  of  the 
agreement,  poison  was  put  in  the  cup  of 
coffee  which  was  handed  Suleiman,  and 
he  fell  back  dead  as  soon  as  he  had  drunk 
it.  Confusion  followed  among  his  tribes- 
men. 


34  The  Arab  Horse 

Then  the  seeds  of  discord  were  sown 
among  the  individual  tribes  of  the  An- 
azah.  Their  herds  of  camels,  their  sheep, 
their  horses  were  so  numerous  that  it 
required  a  wise  hand  to  guide  them  safely, 
assigning  pasturage  to  each  tribe  accord- 
ing to  its  requirements.  The  Sebaa  and 
Gomussa  tribes  had  always  made  use  of 
the  district  between  Homs  and  Hamah, 
above  Damascus,  on  the  western  side  of 
the  desert.  The  next  year  when  they 
came  to  their  usual  district  they  found 
their  brethren,  the  Roala,  there  before 
them.  These  had  been  told  by  the  wily 
Turk  that  their  fellow  tribesmen  of  the 
Sebaa  and  Gomussa  were  not  treating 
them  justly.  They  were  advised  to  take 
their  great  flocks  and  herds,  whose  num- 
bers have  been  mentioned,  to  the  good 
pastures  before  the  others  could  reach 
them,  and  were  assured  that  the  Turks 
would  help  them  hold  what  they  seized. 
In  an  evil  hour  they  accepted  the  advice; 
Suleiman  ibn  Mirshid  having  been  mur- 
dered was  not  at  hand  to  arrange  the 


Arabia  and  Some  of  the  Bedouins  35 

difficulty,  so  when  the  Blunts  were  among 
the  Anazah  they  found  a  factional  war 
being  waged.  Sotaam  ibn  Shaalin  was 
leader  of  the  Roala  against  the  combined 
Sebaa  and  Gomussa.  Suleiman  had  been 
succeeded  by  his  two  cousins,  Beteyan  ibn 
Mirshid  and  his  brother,  neither  of  whom 
had  a  tithe  of  his  administrative  ability, 
and  as  neither  was  able  to  wage  the  war 
against  the  Roala,  they  had  made  Jedaan 
their  Akil,  or  War  Sheik,  to  manage  that 
end  of  the  tribal  business. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  is  easy  to 
understand  the  wretched  condition  of 
affairs  among  the  Bedouins  for  the  ten 
years  between  1874  and  1884.  Let  us 
remember,  also,  that  during  that  period 
the  Russo-Turkish  war  was  carried  on, 
so  that  relief  from  the  usual  aggression  of 
the  Turks,  left  the  Bedouins  free  to  fight 
among  themselves.  It  was  during  the 
raids  and  counter-raids  of  this  time 
that  many  priceless  animals  changed 
hands,  to  be  run  hot  haste  by  their  captors 
into  the  towns  bordering  the  desert  for 


36  The  Arab  Horse 

sale  to  save  them  from  recapture.  It  is 
certain  that  in  the  decade  mentioned 
more  high-caste  Arab  horses  came  out  of 
the  desert  than  ever  before  or  since.  Some 
of  the  animals  thus  coming  into  strange 
hands  will  be  mentioned  specifically. 


CHAPTER  III 

Early  History  and  Families  of  Arab 
Horses 

^T^HE  Bedouins  of  Arabia  are  a  pas- 
•*■  toral  people  who  have  lived  for 
centuries  from  their  flocks  of  sheep  and 
herds  of  camels,  and  have  bred  their  horses 
on  well  established  lines  from  time  imme- 
morial. They  have  always  been  indepen- 
dent, acknowledging  no  rulers  but  their 
own  Sheiks;  jealous  of  interference  by 
outsiders.  Job  was  a  Bedouin,  and  the 
place  of  his  origin,  Ur  of  Chaldea,  was 
visited  by  the  Blunts  on  their  first 
journey  in  Arabia. 

All  the  Bedouins  are  descendants  of 
Ishmael,  and  they  have  genealogies  dat- 
ing from  the  earliest  antiquity.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  Abraham  himself 
was  a  nomad,  who  came  from  Chaldea, 
the     country   east    of    the    Euphrates 

37 


38  The  Arab  Horse 

and  Tigris,  between  those  rivers  and 
the  Persian  boundary.  Hagar,  mother 
of  Ishmael,  was  Abraham's  concubine. 
After  the  birth  of  Isaac,  Ishmael's  half- 
brother,  she  was  driven  into  the  desert 
with  her  fourteen-year-old  son  by  the 
jealousy  of  Sarah,  Isaac's  mother.  Arab 
tradition  supplements  Bible  history  by 
telling  us  that  when  Ishmael  was  sent 
away  with  his  mother  he  lamented  his 
barren  heritage.  He  was  assured,  how- 
ever, that  there  was  reserved  for  him  the 
most  valuable  gift  to  men.  This  he  sub- 
sequently discovered  was  the  horse  of 
the  Kuhl  race,  which  he  found  in  Hejaz. 
The  two  branches  of  descendants  from 
Abraham  were  as  follows: 


A  braham 

Isaac. 

I 

Ishmael 

Jacob. 

2 

Kidai. 

Judah. 

3 

Hamal. 

Pharez. 

4 

Nabet. 

(about  1635  B.  0.)Hezron. 

5 

Salaman. 

Ram. 

6 

Alhamaisa. 

Amminadab 

7 

Alyasa. 

Nashon. 

8 

Odad. 

Salmon. 

9 

Oddo. 

Boaz. 

10 

Adnan. 

j 

Early  History  of  Arab  Horses      39 


(about  163s  B.O.)  Obed. 

II 

Maad. 

[[continued]            Jesse 

12 

Nazar. 

David. 

13 

Rabiah  (al  Faras) 

(B.  0.  1033)  Solomon, 

14 

Asad. 

Rehoboam. 

15 

Anazah. 

Salaman,  fourth  in  descent  from 
Ishmael,  living  B.  C,  1635,  contempor- 
ary of  Hezron,  is  recorded  as  owner  of  five 
mares  of  superlative  value.  Five  hun- 
dred years  later,  his  descendant  eight 
generations  further  along,  contemporary 
of  David,  was  a  man  named  Rabiah.  It 
is  recorded  that  although  Rabiah  was  the 
third  son  of  Nazar  (perhaps  the  fourth)  he 
was  chosen  by  his  father  as  the  most  suit- 
able person  to  be  entrusted  with  his  very 
valuable  breeding  mares,  and  to  continue 
their  use  properly,  so  they  were  given  to 
him.  and  the  words  al  Faras  (''of  the 
horses")  were  added  to  his  name.  Rabiah 
al  Faras  was  the  grandfather  of  Anazah; 
and  from  him  spring  all  those  Bedouin 
tribes  that  bear  his  name,  who  breed, 
and  have  bred  for  three  thousand  years, 
the  purest  and  choicest  Arab  horses. 
Anazah  inherited  them  from  his  grand- 


40  The  Arab  Horse 

father  Rabiah,  descended  without  taint 
of  foreign  blood  from  five  famous  mares 
owned  by  Sheik  Salaman,  he  being  fourth 
in  descent  from  Ishmael  son  of  Abraham. 
Major  Upton  sums  the  entire  matter  in 
these  words:  "An  authentic  family  of 
horses  has  been  preserved  :n  Arabia  for 
3,500  years." 

Until  Upton  had  made  the  researches 
that  opened  up  the  true  history  of  the 
Bedouins  and  their  horses,  it  was  common 
report  that  these  latter  were  descended 
from  mares  that  belonged  to  Mahomet. 
It  is  capable  of  proof  that  Mahomet 
never  owned  a  horse  until  he  went  to 
Medina.  He  then  became  possessed  of 
seven  mares,  three  of  which  were  bought 
— their  names  and  former  owners  are 
recorded — and  four  others  were  gifts. 
The  race  of  pure  bred  Arab  horses  was 
in  existence  three  thousand  years  before 
Mahomet  was  bom. 

Some  writers  have  mentioned  a  family 
of  Nedjid  horses,  and  of  Kochlani,  as 
being  the  best   strains  of  Arab  blood. 


Early  History  of  Arab  Horses      41 

Major  Upton  and  Lady  Anne  Blunt  have 
taught  the  world  that  these  are  not  fami- 
lies of  horses  at  all.  Nejd  is  the  name  of 
a  great  district  in  the  lower  end  of  Arabia, 
for  centuries  under  the  absolute  control 
of  the  Anazah  tribes — Gomussa,  Sebaa, 
Raola,  Welled  Ali,  Fedaan,  etc. — though 
not  now  in  their  possession.  As  these 
tribes  have  none  but  the  purest  strains  of 
horses,  animals  whose  blood  has  been 
kept  untainted  for  a  known  period  of 
3,500  years,  the  Nedjid  horses  (as  Ameri- 
cans would  speak  of  Kentucky  or  State 
of  Maine  horses)  were  highly  esteemed  by 
those  fortunate  enough  to  possess  them. 
The  word  Kochlani  is  derived  from 
Kuhl,  antimony.  Lady  Anne  Blunt  tells 
us  that  Arab  women  apply  antimony  to 
their  eyebrows  and  eyelashes  to  increase 
the  brilliancy  of  their  eyes,  antimony 
being  black.  Therefore,  as  all  Arab 
horses  are  supposed  to  have  black  rings 
about  their  eyes,  such  are  called  Koch- 
lani. Among  the  Anazah,  Major  Upton 
found  the  words  Keheilan  and  Keheilet 


42  The  Arab  Horse 

applied  to  the  horses.  Both  words  are 
recognised  as  derivatives  from  Kuhl 
(antimony)  but  Upton  got  another  expla- 
nation of  the  meaning  of  the  words  as 
applied.  He  found  that  the  entire  race 
of  pure-bred  horses  among  the  Anazah  had 
black  skins,  no  matter  what  the  colour  of 
their  coats.  It  has  come  about,  then, 
in  course  of  time,  that  the  Anazah  have 
adopted  the  words,  to  express  what  we 
mean  in  speaking  of  "thoroughbreds." 
It  is  even  more  exclusive  than  our  word. 
We  speak  of  ''thoroughbred"  horses, 
''thoroughbred"  cattle,  "thoroughbred" 
dogs,  meaning  improved  animals  that 
are  bred  to  a  type,  and  have  not  varied 
from  the  type  since  the  breed  was  estab- 
lished. 

With  the  Bedouin  Keheilan  means  but 
one  thing,  a  horse  (male)  of  pure  Arab 
blood,  and  Keheilet  a  mare  of  pure  Arab 
blood,  whose  lineage  traces  without  break 
to  one  or  more  of  the  five  mares  of  Sala- 
man  {not  King  Solomon,  David's  son),  an 
Arab  Sheik  who  lived  B.  C.  1635,  fourth 


Early  History  of  Arab  Horses      43 

in  descent  from  Ishmael,  son  of  Abra- 
ham. 

The  Bedouins  use  two  other  words  that 
indicate  especial  quality  among  their 
Keheilans  and  Keheilets.  Asil  is  equiv- 
alent to  noble,  or  distinguished )  Hudud 
means  approved.  This  appellation  is 
used  in  connection  with  a  Keheilan,  who 
is  so  well  and  widely  known  among  the 
tribes,  that  many  seek  his  service  for  their 
mares,  and  his  name  only  needs  to  be 
mentioned. 

Upton  also  learned  that  all  pure-bred 
Arabians  were  included  in  Al  Khamseh, 
which  means  The  Five.  That  is,  the 
Anazah  Bedouin  refuses  to  recognise 
any  animal  as  a  Keheilan  or  Keheilet 
that  cannot  trace  direct  to  one  of  the  five 
mares  of  Sheik  Salaman. 

Al  Khamseh  he  found  is  divided  into 
the  following  great  families: 

I — The  descendants  of  Keheilet  Ajuz. 
2 — The   Manakhi   family,    with   three   sub-families. 
3 — The  Hadban  family,  with  five  sub-families. 
4 — The  Jelfon  family,  with  two  sub-families. 
S — The  Homdani  family,  with  two  sub-famili«s. 


44  The  Arab  Horse 

The  first  two  families  are  the  creme  de  la 
creme  of  all  horses,  the  descendants  of 
Keheilet  Ajuz  being  still  further  divided 
as  follows: 

I — ^The     Seglawi    family     (Seglawi-Jedran,     Seglawi- 

Obeiri,  Seglawi- al-Abd.) 
2 — The  Abeyan  family,  with  seven  secondary  families. 
3 — The  Dalman  family,  with  four  secondary  families. 
4 — The  Abu-Arkab  family, with  three  secondary  families 

The  following  are  also  believed  to  belong 
to  the  same  great  family  of  Keheilet 
Ajuz: 

5 — ^The  Rishon  family,  with  two  secondary  families. 
6 — The  Radban  family,  with  three  secondary  families. 
7 — The  Twaissan  family,  with  two  secondary  families. 
8 — The  Milliah  family,  with  three  secondary  families. 

The  history  of  Keheilet  Ajuz  comes  to 
us  surrounded  by  a  romantic  halo  thrown 
around  her  by  the  people  among  w^hom 
she  was  bom  and  lived.  It  is  related 
that  a  certain  Sheik  was  flying  from  an 
enemy,  mounted  on  his  favourite  mare. 
Arab  warriors  trust  themselves  only  to 
mares,  they  will  not  ride  a  stallion  in  war. 
The  said  mare  was  at  the  time  far  along 
toward  parturition;    indeed  she  became 


Early  History  of  Arab  Horses      45 

a  mother  when  the  fleeing  horseman 
stopped  for  rest  at  noonday,  the  new- 
comer being  a  filly. 

Being  hard  pressed  the  sheik  was 
compelled  to  remount  his  mare  and  again 
seek  safety  in  flight,  abandoning  the  new- 
born filly  to  her  fate.  Finally  reaching 
safety  among  his  own  people,  great  was 
the  surprise  of  all,  when,  shortly  after 
the  arrival  of  the  sheik  on  his  faithful 
mare,  the  little  filly,  less  than  a  day  old, 
came  into  camp  also,  having  followed  her 
mother  across  miles  of  desert.  She  was 
immediately  given  into  the  care  of  an  old 
woman  of  the  tribe  {Ajuz — an  old  woman) , 
hence  her  name,  Keheilet  Ajuz,  ''the 
mare  of  the  old  woman,"  and  grew  to  be 
the  most  famous  of  all  the  animals  in  the 
history  of  the  breed.  That  such  a  mare 
really  lived  is  not  to  be  doubted,  what- 
ever credence  we  give  to  the  story  of  her 
early  life.  Upton  seems  in  doubt  just 
where  to  place  her.  He  says  that  some 
believe  all  the  present  families  of  Al 
Khamseh  (the  five)  are  descended  from 


46  The  Arab  Horse 

Keheilet  Ajuz,  she  being  descended  from 
one  of  the  original  Al  Khamseh.  Others 
believe  that  the  line  of  Keheilet  Ajuz, 
with  her  sub-families,  and  numerous 
single  strains,  is  collateral  with  the  other 
four  Keheilets  of  Al  Khamseh,  and  that 
all  the  families  are  not  descended  from 
Keheilet  Ajuz.  There  seems  testimony 
both  ways. 

Again  some  think  the  second  family 
named  as  descended  from  Keheilet  Ajuz, 
namely  the  Abeyan  (Aba — a  cloak — so 
named  because  they  carry  their  tails  so 
high  that  a  sheyk  once  casting  away  his 
cloak  in  flight,  it  was  caught  on  his  mare's 
tail  and  carried  along  with  him)  with  its 
seven  sub-families,  should  not  be  con- 
sidered by  itself,  though  it  is  very  choice 
(asil) ,  but  is  really  a  part  of  the  family  of 
Seklawi  Jedran. 

The  names  of  these  last  show  how  the 
sub-families  come  about.  A  man  named 
Jedran  had  three  mares,  full  sisters,  of  the 
Seklawi  family.  One  he  kept  himself, 
so  she  was  known  as   Seklawi  Jedran. 


Early  History  of  Arab  Horses      47 

Another  he  gave  to  his  brother  Obeiri, 
hence  Seklawi-Obeiri.  The  third  he  gave 
to  his  slave,  so  Seklawi  al  Abd  (of  the 
slave).  It  is  interesting  to  know  that 
Seklawi  al  Abd  proved  a  choicer  strain 
than  Seklawi  Obeiri. 

In  closing  his  remarks  on  Keheilet  Ajuz 
Upton  says : 

"Whether  the  era  of  Keheilet  Ajuz 
was  before  or  since  the  days  of  Rabiah, 
and  if  before,  whether  the  horses  in- 
herited by  Rabiah  were  solely  from  her, 
I  cannot  say.  But  it  certainly  appears 
to  me  that  a  special  selection  of  horses 
does  exist  in  the  Anazah  tribes,  and  their 
tenacity  and  persistency  in  keeping  it 
pure  and  select  is  shown  by  their  refusing 
to  acknowledge  or  return  to  any  strain 
which  has  departed  from  them  into 
other  hands." 

The  reader  will  have  noticed  that  the 
Arabs  always  mention  the  mares  from 
which  their  animals  are  descended,  and 
so  designate  the  families  to  which  they 
belong.  In  this  they  are  quite  right. 
They  speak  with  contempt  of  ''  the  son  of 


48  The  Arab  Horse 

a  horse."  Such  an  animal  is  Kadish 
(a  mongrel),  his  dam  is  lacking  in  his 
pedigree,  and  no  number  of  generations 
of  pure  blood,  superimposed  on  an  impure 
foundation,  can  wash  away  the  stain  of  an 
impure  mare  at  the  bottom  of  the  pedi- 
gree. But  a  Keheilan  is  a  different  prop- 
osition; he  is  the  son  of  a  mare,  a  Keh- 
eilet,  and  no  mare  among  the  Anazah  is 
allowed  to  be  bred,  excepting  in  the  pres- 
ence of  witnesses,  who  can  testify  that  her 
offspring  is  a  Keheilan,  son  of  a  Keheilet. 

This  founding  a  family  on  a  mare  rather 
than  a  stallion  is  a  certain  guarantee 
against  mongrelisation;  and  the  Anazah 
do  not  recognise  the  possibility  of  a  taint 
ever  being  covered  by  the  intervention  of 
never  so  many  pure-bred  sires.  They 
look  with  contempt  on  even  the  best 
English  thoroughbred,  since  there  is  not 
one  of  them  whose  family  is  not  lacking 
in  some  of  its  female  lines. 

The  English  have  an  expression,  "as 
thoroughbred  as  Eclipse."  Yet  Eclipse 
had  70%  of  unknown  blood  in  his  veins. 


CHAPTER  IV 

How  Some  Arab   Horses   Have  Been 
Obtained 

A  S  ALREADY  noted,  the  journeys 
"^^  and  subsequent  writings  of  the 
Blunts  and  Major  Upton  have  done 
much  to  enHghten  the  world  at 
large  concerning  Arab  history  and  the 
breeding  methods  of  the  Bedouins. 
Through  their  agency,  also,  came  to 
England  many  pure  Arabs,  indeed  nearly 
all  the  pure  bred  mares  that  were  acquired 
from  the  desert  by  reason  of  the  civil 
wars  in  Arabia  just  preceding  and  fol- 
lowing the  Russo-Turkish  conflict  of  the 
late  seventies.  One  other  channel  only 
through  which  mares  were  obtained  was 
the  purchases  and  breedings  of  Abbas 
Pasha,  Khedive  of  Egypt.  He  realised 
the  value  of  pure  Arab  blood  in  horses, 
and  spent  money  like  water  in  getting  the 

49 


50  The  Arab  Horse 

best  that  could  be  had,  both  from  the 
Anazah  in  the  upper  desert,  and  also 
from  Nejd.  In  one  instance,  having 
bought  a  mare  of  rare  strain  in  Nejd, 
and  thinking  her  too  old  to  make  the 
journey  to  the  seacoast  by  using  her  own 
legs.  Abbas  sent  a  bullock  cart  for  her, 
bringing  her  one  thousand  five  hundred 
miles  on  wheels. 

All  of  these,  Upton,  the  Blunts,  and 
Abbas  Pasha,  got  stallions  also,  as  did 
Hon.  Miss  Ethelred  Dillon  and  others, 
while  a  number  of  valuable  animals 
were  taken  to  India  by  the  Arab  horse 
dealers  of  Bombay,  Abdur  Rhaman, 
Eyssa  bin  Curtis  and  Eyd  et  Tenimi,  who 
sold  them  to  British  officers  and  Indian 
Rajahs  for  racing  purposes.  We  owe 
the  mares,  however,  to  Upton,  the  Blunts, 
and  Abbas.  When  the  last  named  was 
deposed,  his  breeding  stud  was  continued 
for  some  time  by  Ali  Pasha  Sherif ,  and  on 
the  breaking  up  of  the  stud  the  choicest 
animals  were  purchased  by  the  Blunts, 
who,   in  addition  to  the  Crabbet  Park 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  51 

stud  in  England,  continue  the  breeding  of 
Arab  horses  at  HeUopolis,  near  Cairo, 
Egypt,  under  the  superintendence  of 
Sheik  Obeid,  to  the  present  day. 

As  descendants  of  many  of  these  ani- 
mals have  come  to  America  from  1888 
to  the  present  time,  it  will  be  of  interest 
to  note  some  of  the  most  valuable  in- 
dividuals and  trace  their  antecedents  and 
subsequent  history.  We  have  already 
noted  that  all  Arab  breedings  are  founded 
on  the  female  line,  to  the  extent  that  if  a 
foal  is  offspring  of  a  stallion  and  a  mare 
of  different  families,  it  takes  the  family 
name  of  its  dam,  not  its  sire,  we  there- 
fore will  first  consider  the  mares. 

The  first  time  Upton  visited  Arabia  he 
secured  three  animals,  two  mares,  Zuleika 
and  Haidee,  and  the  stallion  Yataghan. 
Zuleika  produced  one  colt  foal  named 
Symmetry,  then  died.  Yataghan  was 
bred  to  Haidee  and  then  sold  to  the  antip- 
odes. Haidee  produced  one  foal,  Naomi, 
then  she  died  also. 

After  the  death  of  Major  Upton,  Naomi 


52  The  Arab  Horse 

was  bought  by  Rev.  F.  F.  Vidal  of  Need- 
ham  Market,  Suffolk,  an  enthusiastic 
admirer  of  the  Arabian  horse,  who 
owned  her  for  several  years,  and  bred 
four  foals  from  her.  In  1888  Mr.  Vidal 
sold  Naomi  to  Mr.  Randolph  Huntington 
of  Rochester,  New  York,  who  afterwards 
removed  to  Oyster  Bay,  Long  Island, 
where  Naomi  died  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
two  years. 

Naomi  produced  the  following  off- 
spring : 

In  England,   i.  ch.  h.  Gomussa,  by  Kars. 

2.  ch.  m.  Kushdil,  by  Kars. 

3.  ch.  m.  Nazli,  by  Maidan. 

4.  b.  m.  Naama,  by  El  Emir. 
In  America,   5.  ch.  h.  Anazah,  by  Leopard. 

6.  &  7. (a  mare  and  stallion  by  a  trotting 
horse!) 

8.  ch.  h.  Nejd,  by  Anazah,  her  own  son. 

9.  ch.  h.  Khaled,  by  Nimr,  her  grand  son. 

10.  ch.  m.  Naomi  II,  by  Nimr,  her  grand- 

son. 

11.  ch.  m.  Narkeesa,  by  Anazah,  her  son. 

12.  ch.  m.  Naressa,  by  Anazah,  her  son. 

On  his  second  journey  Upton  secured 
five  animals  whose  families  are  recorded 
pages  386,  387,  and  388  of  his  "Glean- 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  53 

ings  from  the  Desert  of  Arabia."  The 
pedigrees  of  the  two  horse  colts  and 
of  one  of  the  mares  are  certified  under 
seal  by  Suleiman  ibn  Mirshid,  of  one 
mare  by  Jedaan  ibn  Mahaid,  and  of 
the  other  mare  by  both  Suleiman  and 
Jedaan. 

Of  these,  the  only  mare  to  produce 
offspring  was  Kesia,  a  bay  mare,  a 
''  Keheilet  of  Nowak,  "  imported  ''  in  foal 
by  a  hudud  Seylwi  al  Abd."  This  mare 
produced  in  1876,  in  Hon.  Henry  Chap- 
lain's stable  at  Blankney,  the  bay  mare 
Kesia  II. 

The  offspring  of  Kesia  II.  were: 

I.     1887,  ch.  m.  Nowagich,  by  Hadeed. 

1888,  b.  h. 

1889,  b.  h. 
1890, ? 

1 89 1,  b.  h.  Imamzada,  by  Imam. 

1892,  ch.  m.  Dabeh,  by  Hadeed. 

1893,  ch.  m.  Mimosa,  by  Mameluke, 

1894,  ch.  m.  Shabaka,  by  Mameluke, 

1895,  ch.  m.    ?   by  Mameluke. 

Kesia  II.  was  struck  by  lightning  in  1898 
and  killed.  She  was  the  property  of 
Hon.  Miss  Dillon. 


54  The  Arab  Horse 

The  horse  colts  brought  in  1875  ^7 
Upton  were  Joktam,  that  was  sold  to 
Australia  for  ;^i,ooo,  a  Keheilan  Tamri 
and  Ishmael  that  was  kept  by  Mr.  Chap- 
lin. 

Kesia  had  no  offspring  by  a  pure  Arab 
horse  other  than  Kesia  II,  though  she 
produced,  in  1878,  a  chestnut  filly  by 
the  great  Derby  winner  Hermit,  as  repre- 
hensible an  act  in  breeding  as  coupling 
Naomi  with  a  trotting  stallion. 

The  first  visit  of  the  Blunts  to  Arabia 
resulted  in  their  bringing  to  England  with 
them  three  mares — rather  they  were  for- 
warded after  them  by  Mr.  Skene — Hagar, 
Sherifa,  and  a  chestnut  mare,  Saadah 
Togan. 

Hagar  was  perhaps  the  best  mare,  cer- 
tainly one  of  the  best,  that  ever  came  out 
of  the  desert.  Lady  Anne  Blunt  says  of 
her: 

''  Endurance  of  fatigue  on  the  road  and 
hardiness  under  want  of  food  are  qualities 
that  may  always  be  reckoned  on  in  buy- 
ing an  Arab  horse,  no  matter  what  his 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  55 

looks  or  what  his  pedigree;  but  speed  is 
exceptional,  and  confined  to  the  best 
strains  of  blood.  Hagar,  as  we  called  her, 
was  of  theKeheilanAjuzbreed,  the  fastest, 
the  stoutest,  and  the  most  English  looking 
of  them  all.  When  purchased,  she  was 
in  very  poor  condition,  having  just  gone 
through  the  severe  training  of  a  campaign. 
She  was  bred  by  the  Gomussa,  the  most 
notable  of  the  horse-breeding  tribes, 
had  passed  from  them  to  the  Roala,  and 
had  now  been  captured  and  ridden  some 
two  hundred  miles  in  hot  haste  for  sale 
at  Aleppo.  She  was  a  five  year  old  mare, 
a  bay,  with  black  points.  We  never  met 
anything  in  our  travels  which  could  com- 
pete with  her  over  a  distance,  and  she 
has  often  run  down  foxes,  and  even  hares, 
without  assistance;  carrying  thirteen 
stone  (182  lbs.)  on  her  back.  She  was 
of  a  mild,  gentle  temper,  and  always 
went  smoothly  on,  without  fret  or  worry, 
and  with  the  long  low  stride  of  an  Eng- 
lish race  horse.  She  never  galloped 
better  than  when  she  seemed  worn 
out  with  work.  She  had  the  advan- 
tage, too,  for  Wilfrid,  of  being  tall, 
fifteen  hands — an  unusual  height  among 
Arabians." 


56  The  Arab  Horse 

Lady  Blunt's  book,  ''The  Bedouin 
Tribes  of  the  Euphrates,"  is  full  of  the 
praises  of  Hagar's  performances,  and  one 
of  the  best  was  after  having  been  ridden 
more  than  twelve  hundred  miles  in  three 
months  of  travel  in  the  desert,  from 
Aleppo  to  Deyr,  Bagdad,  through  Meso- 
potamia to  Shergat,  then  west  again  across 
the  Euphrates  and  to  Tadmar.  It  was 
when  they  turned  back  to  meet  Mr. 
Skene  at  Arak,  after  having  started 
from  Tadmar  to  join  Jedaan  in  the 
desert. 

"It  was  still  nearly  dark  when  we 
mounted,  but  we  would  not  wait  longer 
than  for  the  rise  of  the  morning  star,  and 
started  at  a  gallop  as  soon  as  we  had  it 
for  a  guide.  The  Zaptiehs  on  their  tired 
horses  made  a  show  of  accompanying  us, 
declaring  it  was  impossible  they  should 
allow  us  to  go  alone.  But  Hagar  had 
quite  other  ideas,  and  after  the  first  two 
miles  they  dropped  behind  and  were 
lost  to  sight.  And  now  began  the  longest 
gallop  I  ever  took  in  my  life.  It  was 
fifteen    miles  to    Arak,   and    we    never 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  57 

drew  rein  till  we  got  to  the  foot  of 
the  hill  behind  which  the  village  stands. 
.  .  .  For  the  first  few  miles  my 
mare  behaved  very  well,  going  on  at 
her  easy  stride  without  unnecessary 
hurry,  and  allowing  Tamarisk  to  keep 
more  or  less  beside  her;  but  after  this, 
although  she  was  not  in  the  least  ex- 
cited, she  would  not  be  kept  at  any 
reasonable  pace.  She  does  not  mind 
uneven  ground,  full  of  Jerboa  holes, 
and  went  faster  and  faster,  till  soon 
Tamarisk  and  Wilfrid  were  as  much  out 
of  the  race  as  the  soldiers  were,  and 
yet  she  would  not  be  steadied.  It 
was  only  when  we  came  to  the  hills 
and  very  broken  stony  ground,  fully 
twelve  miles  from  where  we  started,  that 
I  got  a  pull  at  her,  and  at  last  stopped 
her.  .  .  .  We  were  just  forty-five 
minutes  doing  the  twelve  miles.  .  .  . 
The  last  two  miles  we  travelled  at  a  more 
sober  pace,  and  the  sun  appeared  as 
we  rode  in  through  the  stone  gateway 
of  Arak." 

No  wonder  she  brought  Hagar  to  Eng- 
land as  a  brood  mare!  There  she  pro- 
duced the  following: 


$S  The  Arab  Horse 

Offspring  of  Hagar. 

1.  1880,  b.  h.  Hadramant,  by  Kars. 

2.  1881,  ch.  m.  Haifa,  by  Kars. 

3.  1883,  b.  m.  Hijaz,  by  Pharaoh  . 

4.  1884,  b.  m.  Harik,  by  Kars. 

5.  1885,  b.  m.  (died)  by  Rataplan. 

6.  1886,  b.  h.  Himyarite,  by  Kars. 

7.  1888,  b.  h.  Hafiz,  El  Emir. 

8.  1889,  br.  m.  Zem  Zem,  El  Emir. 

9.  1891,  b.  h.  Havileh,  by  Imam, 

10.  1892,  b.  h.  Hail,  by  Jamrood. 

11.  1895,  ch.  h.  Sohail,  by  Jamrood. 

12.  1896,  b.  m.  Hamada,  by  Imamzada. 

13.  1897,  b.  h.  Hauran,  by  Jezail. 

Hagar  died  in  1898,  twenty-five  years  of 
age.  The  chestnut  mare  Saadah  Togan 
bought  at  Deyr  is  said  to  have  been  sold 
to  Miss  Dillon  under  the  name  of  Zenobia 
but  we  have  no  record  of  her  offspring. 
Hagar  also  had  been  owned  and  used  for 
breeding  purposes  for  a  number  of  years 
by  Miss  Dillon,  whose  property  she  was  at 
the  end. 

Sherifa,  the  white  mare  was  a  very 
marked  animal,  ''  a  white  Hamdani  Simri 
purchased  for  us  by  Mr.  Skene  at  Aleppo.'* 
She  was  bred  in  Nejd,  and  was  given  by 
Ibn  Saoud,  Emir  of  Riad,  in  1873,  to  the 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  59 

Turkish  governor  of  Mecca.  He  brought 
her  to  Aleppo  and  gave  her  in  turn  to  the 
chief  Ulema  there,  who  used  her  only  as  a 
brood  mare  and  to  carry  him  once  a  day 
to  the  mosque.  Lady  Blunt  says  she  had 
"  the  most  extraordinarily  beautiful  head 
ever  seen,  and  the  sweetest  of  tempers." 

The  full  list  of  her  offspring  cannot  be 
known,  as  she  had  foals  both  in  Arabia 
and  after  coming  to  England.  In  the 
latter  country  her  blood  is  highly  prized, 
not  only  that  through  her  daughters, 
Sherezade  and  Shibboleth,  but  also  at  the 
present  day  where  her  grand-daughters, 
Shieka  and  Shibine,  the  first  a  daughter  of 
Shiraz,  the  second  a  daughter  of  Shohba, 
represent  her  in  the  Crabbet  Arabian 
Stud. 

The  Blunts  have  owned  and  bred  so 
many  pure  Arabs  since  they  first  became 
interested  in  them  in  1877  that  it  would 
be  a  long  list  were  all  the  animals  named. 
In  1905  they  had  about  a  hundred  and 
twenty-five  in  the  Crabbet  Stud,  besides 
many  others  in  Egypt.     A  few  more  of 


6o  The  Arab  Horse 

their  mares,  however,  deserve  at  least 
passing  mention. 

Rodania,  dam  of  Rose  of  Sharon,  Rose- 
mary, Rose  of  Jericho,  and  others.  This 
mare,  far  famed  among  the  tribes  of  the 
"  Hamad,"  was  the  much  prized  property 
of  Beneyeh  Ibn  Shaalan,  of  the  Roala 
tribe  of  the  Anazah.  She  was  a  chest- 
nut Keheilet  Ajuz  of  the  Rodan  strain, 
bred  by  Ibn  Rodan  of  the  Roala  tribe. 
Sotaam  Ibn  Shaalan,  supreme  Sheik 
of  the  tribe  when  visited  by  the  Blunts 
in  March  1878,  took  her  from  his  cousin 
Beneyeh  by  unfair  means,  her  theft  being 
the  occasion  of  a  feud  between  the  two. 
War  breaking  out  between  the  Sebaa  and 
Roala  tribes,  Beneyeh  refused  to  help 
Sotaam,  the  Roala  were  badly  beaten, 
and  they  lost  much  plunder  of  camels 
and  mares,  including  Rodania.  She  was 
taken  by  Tais  Ibn  Sharban  of  the  Gor- 
mussa  tribe  of  the  Sebaa  Anazah,  from 
whom  the  Blunts  bought  her  in  1881. 

Bint  Helwa,  a  white  Seglawieh  Jed- 
ranieh  of  the  strain  of  Ibn  Sudan  of  the 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  6i 

Roala  tribe.  This  is  the  famous  "  broken- 
legged  mare,"  now  to  be  seen  at  Crabbet 
Park.  When  visiting  this  stud  in  Sep- 
tember 1905,  the  writer  had  first  one  and 
then  another  particularly  attractive  ani- 
mal pointed  out  as  the  offspring  of  *'  the 
broken-legged  mare.''  Finally  he  asked, 
*'What  is  the  broken-legged  mare,  and 
where  is  she?"  ''You  shall  see,"  said 
Lady  Anne  Blunt,  leading  the  way  to  a 
box  stall,  of  which  Bint  Helwa  was  the 
sole  occupant.  Here  we  saw  a  broken- 
legged  mare  sure  enough.  Were  it  not 
for  her  injury  she  is  a  beauty,  pure  white, 
with  a  head  such  as  Schreyer  would  seek 
as  a  model.  But,  her  off  fore  leg!  This 
was  broken  between  the  knee  and  shoulder 
so  that  it  wabbled  loosely.  Her  shoulder 
was  also  broken,  and  the  gentle  creature 
stands  always  on  three  legs,  the  fourth 
can  support  no  weight,  the  toe  just 
touches  the  ground,  and  when  she  would 
move  about  the  mare  rears  a  bit,  hops 
around  with  the  good  front  leg,  dragging 
the  poor  useless  member. 


62  The  Arab  Horse 

The  exclamation  was  spontaneous, 
''For  heaven's  sake  how  long  has  that 
mare  been  in  that  condition?"  ''Oh, 
for  eight  years,"  answered  Lady  Blunt. 
Then  she  told  the  story.  Bint  Helwa 
had  come  from  the  Egyptian  stud  with 
two  other  mares,  and  the  three  turned  to 
pasture  together  on  arrival  in  England. 
In  the  evening  the  other  two  came  up  to 
the  stables,  Bint  Helwa  was  missing.  On 
searching,  she  was  found  in  a  ditch. 
She  had  jumped  the  enclosing  fence  of  the 
pasture,  landed  in  the  ditch  so  that  her 
leg  and  shoulder  were  terribly  broken, 
and  the  other  mares  following  had  jumped 
on  top  of  her,  breaking  two  of  her  ribs. 
As  she  was  within  six  weeks  of  foaling  it 
was  decided  not  to  destroy  her,  but  take 
her  to  the  stable  and  try  to  save  the  foal. 
The  mare  was  gotten  out  on  to  a  drag, 
pulled  as  gently  as  possibly  to  her  box 
stall,  suspended  in  slings,  and  cooling 
applications  made  to  the  injured  parts. 
The  breaks  were  too  extensive  to  knit, 
but  such  was  the  soundness  of  her  health 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  63 

and  constitution  that  the  days  passed 
and  no  rise  in  her  temperature  ensued. 
When  the  day  came  for  her  foal  to  be 
bom,  she  was  lowered  gently  in  the  stall, 
the  little  one  came  into  the  world  all 
right,  she  made  good  recovery,  and  since 
that  time  has  bred  seven  perfect  foals.  Now 
in  1906,  the  broken-legged  mare  is  nine- 
teen years  old,  and  she  is  due  to  foal  this 
spring.  This  authentic  history  of  a  mare 
that  is  to  be  seen  by  any  visitor  to  Crab- 
bet  Stud  is  a  tale  of  endurance  and  sound- 
ness that  might  lead  us  to  give  credence 
even  to  the  tradition  associated  with  the 
beginnings  of  life  of  the  famous  Keheilet 
Ajuz.  If  there  is  a  finer  Arab  stallion 
in  the  world  than  Harb,  the  six  year  old 
son  of  Bint  Helwa  and  Mesaoud,  the  writer 
would  go  a  great  distance  to  see  him. 

Queen  of  Sheba  is  the  name  of  a  bay 
mare  foaled  in  1875,  which  Lady  Anne 
Blunt  saw  and  coveted  at  the  time  she 
was  with  the  Sebaa  Bedouins  in  March, 
1878.  At  that  time  the  mare  belonged 
to  Beteyen  Ibn  Mirshid,  who  had  succeed- 


64  The  Arab  Horse 

ed  his  murdered  cousin  Suleiman  Ibn 
Mirshid,  Upton's  friend,  as  supreme 
Sheik  of  the  Gomussa.  She  was  bred 
by  Erheyen  Ibn  Alian  of  the  Gomussa 
tribe,  was  an  Abeyeh  Sherrakieh,  and 
was  sold  by  her  breeder,  on  shares,  to 
Beteyen.  At  the  time  of  their  visit  the 
Blunts  sought  by  every  means  to  buy 
the  filly,  and  the  account  of  their  efforts 
as  told  in  ''The  Bedouin  Tribes  of  the 
Euphrates"  is  highly  interesting.  The 
mare  is  thus  described  by  Lady  Blunt: 

"But  our  chief  delight  was  to  follow, 
when  Beteyen  Ibn  Mirshid,  Sheyk  of 
the  Gomussa,  rode  up  to  Mohammed 
Dukhi's  tent  to  pay  a  visit.  He  had  just 
purchased  from  one  of  his  people  the 
'bridle  half  of  a  three  year  old  mare,  an 
Abeyeh  Sherrak,  and  was  riding  her 
home  when  he  heard  we  were  at  Mo- 
hammed Dukhi's  tent.  The  mare  is  so 
much  more  remarkable  than  the  man 
that  I  must  describe  her  first.  She  is  a 
dark  bay  standing  fifteen  hands  or  over. 
Her  head,  the  first  point  an  Arab  looks 
to,  is  a  good  one,  though  I  have  seen 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  65 

finer,  but  is  perfectly  set  on,  and  the 
mttbakh,  or  join  of  the  head  and  neck, 
would  give  distinction  to  any  profile. 
Her  neck  is  light  and  well  arched,  the 
wither  high,  the  shoulder  well  sloped,  and 
the  quarter  so  fine  and  powerful  that  it 
is  impossible  she  should  be  otherwise  than 
a  very  fast  mare.  Her  length  of  limb 
above  the  hock  is  remarkable,  as  is 
that  of  the  pastern.  She  carries  her 
tail  high,  as  all  well  bred  Arabians  do, 
and  there  is  a  neatness  and  finish  about 
every  movement  which  reminds  one  of 
a  fawn  or  a  gazelle.  We  all  agreed  that 
she  is  incomparably  superior  to  any- 
thing we  have  seen  here  or  elsewhere 
(Mr.  Skene  was  of  the  party  at  the  time) 
and  would  be  worth  a  king's  ransom,  if 
kings  were  still  worth  ransoming." 

They  did  not  get  the  mare  at  that  time, 
but  Mr.  Skene  secured  her  for  them  later 
at  a  cost  of  ;£24o  ($1,200);  and  when 
they  returned  to  Damascus  the  next 
winter  to  make  a  start  for  their  ''Pil- 
grimage to  Nejd,"  they  heard  ''all  that 
had  happened  in  the  desert  during  the 
summer.     First  of  all,  the  sensation  that 


66  The  Arab  Horse 

has  been  caused  there  by  our  purchase  of 
Beteyen's  mare,  which  after  all  we  secured 
and  the  heart-burnings  and  jealousies 
raised  thereby." 

Asfura,  daughter  of  Beteyen's  mare, 
and  several  of  her  offspring  are  to  be 
found  at  Crabbet  Park  to-day.  As- 
traled,  the  son  of  Queen  of  Sheba*  and 
Mesaoud,  foaled  1900,  is  the  only  horse 
in  the  entire  collection  that  is  perhaps 
more  attractive  than  Harb,  son  of  Bint 
Helwa. 

Another  mare  brought  from  Arabia  by 
Lady  Anne  Blunt  that  should  be  men- 
tioned was  Basilisk,  a  grey  Seglawieh 
Jedranieh  of  the  strain  of  Ibn  ed  Derri. 
Basilisk  was  bought  by  the  Duke  of 
Westminster  for  breeding  to  thorough- 
bred horses,  and  produced  for  him  some 
winners  of  races  in  the  best  of  company. 

Wild  Thyme,  a  bay  mare  foaled  1876, 
which  they  bought  of  the  Baggara  tribe 
of  the  Euphrates,  was  the  only  animal 
secured  by  either  the  Blunts  or  Upton, 

*The  name  given  to  Beteyen's  mare  by  the  Blunts. 


Photograph  by  Schreihe 


ANTIKA,    4   YEARS 


Dam — Asfurai  daughter  of  Queen  of  Sheba  (Betteyan's  mare) 
Sire — Mesaoud 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  67 

of  the  coveted  family  of  Ras  el  Fedawi,  to 
which  belonged  the  famous  Darley  Ara- 
bian. It  has  often  been  stated  that  he 
was  a  Manekhi  Hedruj.  Both  Major 
Upton  and  Lady  Anne  Blunt  say  he  was 
Ras  el  Fedawi.  This  is  one  of  the  sub- 
families of  Keheilet  Ajuz,  and  the  nearest 
Major  Upton  was  able  to  secure  was  the 
bay  mare  Kesia,  a  Keheilet  of  Nowak, 
closely  akin  to  the  Ras  el  Fedawi.  Upton 
says  (Gleanings  page  324):  ''Of  the 
strain  called  Ras  el  Fedawi,  of  which 
family  I  understand  was  the  Darley 
Arabian,  we  saw  some  mares  in  another 
tribe  and  in  the  hands  of  single  Arabs, 
but  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  any 
in  the  Sabaah."  The  only  one  he  could 
buy  was  so  badly  broken  down  that  he 
would  not  take  her. 

Wild  Thyme  was  bred  to  Kars,  a  bay 
Seglawi  Jedran  horse  of  the  Ibn  Sbeni 
strain,  purchased  at  Aleppo  by  Mr.  Blunt, 
and  considered  of  very  choice  blood. 
Lady  Anne  Blunt  ranks  him  as  one  of  the 
most  valuable  horses  they  secured.     The 


6^  The  Arab  Horse 

offspring  was  Raschida,  a  very  remark- 
able mare,  still  owned  (1906)  by  Hon. 
Miss  Dillon,  who  bought  her,  with  Hagar, 
and  Jedrania,  besides  other  choice  ani- 
mals, from  the  Blunts. 

Raschida  is  a  bay  mare,  foaled  1883,  a 
Ras  el  Fedawi,  15  hands  high.  She  has 
won  nineteen  jumping  prizes,  besides  one 
second  prize  in  the  hunter  class  at  Blan- 
ford.  She  carried  13  stone  (182  lbs)  in 
the  hunting  field  ten  weeks  before  foaling, 
and  is  the  only  pure  Arab  mare  in  the 
Hunters'  Improvement  Stud  Book,  besides 
being  registered  in  Weatherby's  **  General 
Stud  Book,"  Vol.  XV. 


Offspring     of     Raschida. 
1887,  b.  m.  Rommia,  by  El  Emir. 

1889,  b.  m.  Rakusheh,  El  Emir. 

1890,  b.  m.  Rahatlakoum,  by  Gomussa. 

1 89 1,  b.  m.  Aziza,  by  El  Emir. 

1893,  b.  h.  Rasoul,  by  Imam. 

1894,  b.  m.  Laili,  by  Jamrood. 

1895,  b.  h.  Ras  el  Fedawi,  by  Havilah. 

1896,  ch.  f,  (dead),  by  Volomel. 

1897,  b.  m.  Riad,  by  Hail. 

1898,  b.  m.  Raz-za-za,  by  Imamzada. 

1904,  b,  m.  Mahal,  by  Imamzada. 

1905,  b.  m.  Nessa,  by  Hauran. 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  69 

Jedrania  also  proved  one  of  the  very 
valuable  producers  among  the  Arab 
mares  of  England.  She  was  foaled  in 
1875,  a  Seglawi  Jedranieh,  bred  by  Ali 
Aga  of  Milich,  at  Deyr  Hafa,  on  the 
Euphrates.  Her  dam  was  captured  in 
war  and  given  as  a  bribe  to  Ali  Aga  the 
Turkish-Pasha  of  Deyr,  in  whose  posses- 
sion she  foaled  Jedrania.  From  him  the 
mare  was  purchased  by  Mr.  Blunt. 

Offspring  of  Jedrania. 

1.  1881,  ch,  h.  Jamschyd,  byAbeyan  el  Khush. 

2.  1882,  ch.  h.  (dead)  by  Pharaoh, 

3.  1884,  b.  m.  Jebel  Druz,  by  Kars. 

4.  1885,  b.  m.  Juniper,  by  Kars. 

5.  1886,  b.  m.  (dead),  by  Abeyran. 

6.  1887,  b.  m.  (dead),  by  Nizam. 

7.  1888,  b.  m.  Jedran,  by  El  Emir. 

8.  1891,  b.  h.  (dead),  Jebel  Shammar. 

9.  1893,  b.  h.  Jezail,  by  Imam. 

10.  1894,  b.  h.  Jadoo,  by  Jamrood. 

11.  1896,  br.  m.  Yasimeen,  by  Imamzada. 

12.  1898,  b.  h.  Jezza,  by  Rasoul. 

These  are  some  of  the  fine  mares  that 
have  been  owned  in  England  through 
the  efforts  of  a  few  enthusiastic  and 
persistent    breeders.     It    will    be    noted 


70  The  Arab  Horse 

that  they  have  produced  sufficiently  to 
account  for  King  Edward's  dominion 
being  the  source  whence  many  other 
countries  have  been  able  to  supply  them- 
selves with  pure  Arab  blood. 

A  number  of  the  choicest  stallions  also 
were  brought  by  the  Blunts,  some  from 
Arabia,  others  from  the  Abbas  Pasha 
Stud,  still  others  from  Bombay.  Among 
the  best  of  the  first  was  Kars,  a  very 
beautiful  and  impressive  animal.  Wea- 
therby  thus  records  him  in  Vol  XIV  of  the 
General  Stud  Book: 

''Kars,  a  bay  horse  (foaled  1874)  a 
Seglawi  Jedran  of  the  Ibn  Sbeni,  pur- 
chased at  Aleppo  by  W.  S.  Blunt,  from 
Mahmoud  Aga,  chief  of  the  irregulars. 
This  blood  is  considered  the  best  in  the 
Syrian  Desert." 

Mesaoud  is  also  a  very  choice  Seglawi 
Jedran  horse  of  Ibn  Sudan's  strain  of  the 
Roala  Anazah,  bred  by  Ali  Pasha  Sherif 
from  a  mare  bought  in  the  desert  by 
Abbas  Pasha.  He  won  many  prizes  in 
England  and  on  the  continent,  his  blood 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  71 

saturatevS  the  animals  now  at  Crabbet 
Park,  and  he  was  purchased  in  1903  by 
the  Russian  Government  for  use  in  the 
Imperial  vStud. 

Rataplan  was  bought  by  Mr.  Blunt  in 
Bombay.  Visiting  India  in  1882  to  see 
the  great  races  for  Arab  horses  which 
had  become  established  events  in  that 
country,  he  recognised  in  Rataplan  a 
horse  he  had  seen  ridden  in  Arabia  by 
Jedaan  ibu  Mahaid  of  whom  mention  has 
been  made.  Inquiry  proved  his  identi- 
fication accurate,  the  horse  had  been 
brought  to  Bombay  by  Abdur  Rhaman 
after  Jedaan's  death,  and  was  raced 
successfully,  winning  the  following 
events: 

Wellington,  May  15,  1882,  Arab  Handicap,  i^  miles, 
500  Rs.,  beating  Snowdrop,  Ruby,  and  Copen- 
hagen. 

Bangalore,  July  18,  1882,  Arabian  Purse,  i^  miles,  500 
Rs.,  beating  Dictator,  Copenhagen  and  Khusroo. 

Bangalore,  July  22,  1882,  Winner's  Handicap,  if  miles, 
500  Rs.,  beating  Dictator,  Grey  Warrior,  Euphra- 
tes, and  Copenhagen. 

Baroda,  Dec.  28,  1882,  Gaekwar's  Purse,  i^  miles,  800 
Rs.,  beating  Blotting  Paper,  Robin  Grey,  Duch- 
ess, Slug,  Morar,  Redoubt,  and  Reserved, 


72  The  Arab  Horse 

Mr.  Blunt  then  bought  Rataplan  and 
shipped  him  to  England  for  use  in  the 
Crabbet  Stud. 

Many  other  Arab  horses  greatly  dis- 
tinguished themselves  in  racing  in  India; 
but  as  they  never  came  to  England  or  the 
Continent  of  Europe  have  left  no  influ- 
ence upon  modern  occidental  horse  breed- 
ing. A  rapid  enumeration  is  all  the 
attention  that  can  be  given  them  in  the 
present  writing. 

Greyleg  won  51  races  at  Bombay, 
Mysore,  and  Bangalore  between  1861  and 
1868.  Hermit  won  34  races  during  the 
same  period.  Rex,  Euclid,  and  Lanercost 
were  also  great  winners.  The  demand  for 
anything  that  could  win  races  from  the 
rich  Rajahs  who  made  racing  their  pas- 
time, caused  standing  offers  of  fabulous 
prices  at  all  times  by  British  officers,  and 
the  demand  brought  a  partial  supply.  In 
1893  not  less  than  16,000  rupees  were 
added  to  the  stakes  at  the  Calcutta  meet- 
ing alone.  To  win  such  prizes  the  Mahara- 
jah of  Cooch  Behar  paid  R5,ooo  ($2,500) 


GREYLEG 


.--^ 

'0 

EUCLID 


LANERCOST 


BLITZ 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  73 

for  Dominant,  and  Ri  1,000  for  Good 
Hope,  while  *R3 0,000  were  offered  and 
refused  for  either  Rex  or  BHtz.  This 
last-named  horse  was  certainly  one  of  the 
greatest  stake  winners  for  his  inches  that 
the  world  has  ever  seen.  Bought  origin- 
ally by  Lieut.  O'Farrell  of  the  6th  Dra- 
goons for  R400  ($200)  he  never  was 
beaten.  After  winning  the  Civil  Service 
Cup  for  the  second  time,  his  owner  and 
partners  bought  him  in  no  less  than  four- 
teen pools,  whose  actual  aggregate  value 
was  $60,000.  Later,  he  was  bought  by 
Lord  William  Beresford,  and  used  in  the 
stud  in  England,  to  a  limited  degree. 
Afterward  he  passed  into  the  possession 
of  the  Maharajah  of  Patiala,  who  took 
him  back  to  India  and  used  him  for  breed- 
ing. He  is  described  by  one  who  knew 
him  well,  in  these  words: 

**He  is  for  his  size,  the  most  remark- 
able animal  ever  foaled.  He  is  milk  white 
with  black  muzzle,  which  can  be  put  in 
a  pint  pot.  Weight  makes  no  difference 
to  him." 


74  The  Arab  Horse 

Another  remarkable  horse,  who  must 
be  rated  in  the  same  class  with  Blitz, 
was  Kismet.  He  was  foaled  in  the 
desert  in  1877,  a  Manakhi  Hedruj,  and 
taken  to  India  by  Abdur  Rhaman,  in 
1882.  In  i883-'84  he  swept  everything 
before  him  on  the  race  track,  never  losing 
a  race  or  heat,  his  total  winnings  for  those 
seasons  in  India  amounting  to  £30,000 
($150,000). 

Kismet's  Races  in  India 
Bangalore,    July  12,  1883,  the  Mysore  Oup,  i\  miles, 

carrying  139  lbs. 
Bangalore,     July  14,  1883,  the  Mysore  Purse,  ij  miles, 

carrying  134  lbs. 
Bangalore,    July  19,  1883,  Aga  Khan's  Purse,  i^  miles, 

carrying  134  lbs. 
Poonah,  Sept.   8,   1883,  Aga  Khan's  Plate,   i^  miles, 

carrying  126  lbs. 
Poonah,    Sept.  11,  1883,  Aga  Khan's  Purse,  if  miles, 

carrying  131  lbs, 
Hyderabad,   Nov,  22,  1883  Deccan  Handicap,  i^^miles, 

carrying  119  lbs. 
Bombay,    Feb.   12,   1884,  The  Derby,   ij  miles  carry- 
ing 136  lbs. 
Bombay,    Feb.  14,  1884,  Aga  Khan's  Purse,  ij  miles, 

carrying  133  lbs 

Immediately  after  this  race  Lieut. 
Broadwood  brought  Kismet  to  England, 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  75 

where  he  was  owned  by  Col.  R.  D.  Coyn- 
ingham  V.  C.  He  landed  after  a  tem- 
pestuous voyage  in  the  latter  part  of 
April,  and  so  confident  was  his  owner 
of  his  prowess,  that  he  matched  him  to 
run  against  Asil,  without  training,  at 
Newmarket.  Asil  beat  him  in  this  race 
for  the  only  time  in  Kismet's  entire  career. 
Twice  afterward  Kismet  turned  the 
tables  on  Asil,  showing  that  it  was  lack  of 
condition  that  lost  him  his  first  race  with 
that  horse.  In  1885  Kismet  was  ridden 
at  Newmarket  by  Fred  Archer,  who  rode 
the  Derby  winner  five  different  times, 
and  he  pronounced  Kismet  the  gamest 
horse  he  ever  rode.  Such,  also,  was  the 
opinion  of  Wood,  who  rode  him  in  his 
races  against  Asil  at  Newmarket  and 
Sandown  Park.  Both  these  races  were 
for  two  miles,  and  Kismet  won  ''hands 
down, ' '  carrying  126  pounds.  After  that  he 
was  bought  by  Hon.  John  Corbett,  M.  P., 
as  a  saddle  horse,  and  he  sold  him  to  Rev. 
F.  F.  Vidal,  who  kept  him  in  the  stud  until 
1 89 1,  when  he  leased  him  to  Mr.  Ran- 


76  The  Arab  Horse 

dolph  Huntington,  of  Oyster  Bay,  Long 
Island.  After  a  long  and  stormy  passage 
Kismet  reached  New  York  by  Str. 
Canada,  Nov,  11,  1891,  only  to  die  two 
hours  after  landing,  of  pleuro-pneumonia 
contracted  on  the  voyage.  This  rather 
extended  history  of  Kismet  has  been 
given  because,  though  his  untimely 
death  was  so  serious  a  loss,  he  has  had,  and 
will  continue  to  have,  an  important  in- 
fluence on  horse  breeding  in  America, 
two  of  his  pure  bred  sons  having  come  to 
this  country  in  1893,  as  will  be  noted 
later. 

Maidan  is  the  last  of  the  great  horses 
that  came  to  England  from  Arabia 
through  India,  whose  name  can  have  our 
especial  attention.  Many  who  knew  him, 
including  Lady  Anne  Blunt  and  the  Hon. 
Miss  Dillon,  place  him  even  above  Kismet, 
and  the  opinion  is  concurred  in  by  others 
who  knew  him  only  by  his  offspring. 
Maidan  was  foaled  in  1869  in  Nejd,  a 
chestnut  (as  was  Kismet),  said  by  some 
to  have  been  a  Manakhi  Hedruj,  though 


H 

< 

< 
< 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  77 

this  was  doubted  by  others  because  of  his 
great  beauty,  the  Manakhi  being  a 
family  of  rather  plain  appearance,  though 
great  race  horses.  He  was  brought  to 
Bombay  by  Abdur  Rhaman  in  187 1,  and 
sold  to  Captain  Johnstone,  who  imme- 
diately commenced  racing  him,  though 
the  colt  was  but  two  years  old.  Captain 
Fisher  and  Major  B  rough  were  also  inter- 
ested in  Maidan;  and  as  these  English 
officers  had  tested  him  they  were  free  in 
taking  the  long  odds  which  were  laid 
against  him  by  the  Australian  sports  who 
came  to  the  races  and  were  ready  to  lay 
against  an  untried  colt.  It  is  said  that 
after  Maidan  won  the  Punjab  Cup,  the 
Australians  had  hardly  money  enough 
left  to  pay  their  passage  home.  For 
three  years,  from  1871  to  1874,  Maidan 
continued  his  winning  career,  until  no 
further  matches  could  be  made  for  him. 
Then,  at  5  years  of  age,  he  was  sold  to 
Lieut.  Col.  Brownlow  of  the  72d  High- 
landers, as  a  charger.  Brownlow  was 
a  heavyweight  of  nineteen  stone  (266  fbs.) 


78  The  Arab  Horse 

with  his  equipment,  yet  Maidan  carried 
him  for  twelve  years  in  campaigns 
through  the  mountainous  regions  of  India 
and  Afghanistan,  until  the  soldier  was 
killed  in  the  fight  at  Kandahar,  at  the 
end  of  the  famous  forced  march  of  Lord 
Roberts's  Army  from  Cabul,  three  hun- 
dred miles  distant.  After  carrying 
Brownlow  for  ten  years  Maidan  won  the 
Ganges  Hog  Hunt  Cup,  and  also  a  four 
mile  steeplechase  across  difficult  country. 
At  seventeen  years  of  age,  on  the  death  of 
Brownlow,  Maidan  was  bought  by  Lord 
Airlie  who  again  put  him  to  racing  where 
he  won  a  number  of  races  both  on  the 
fiat  and  steeplechases.  He  was  then  sold 
to  Captain  the  Hon.  Eustace  Vesey,  who 
bought  him  to  take  to  England.  Leaving 
India  on  the  troopship  Jumna  Maidan 
got  as  far  as  Suez,  where  the  ship  met 
the  expedition  going  to  the  relief  of 
Suakim,  where  Osman  Digna  was  har- 
rassing  the  garrison,  and  was  pressed  into 
service  as  a  transport  for  troops  to  Mas- 
sowah,  near  the  lower  end  of  the  Red  Sea. 


How  Some  Arabs  Have  Been  Obtained  79 

So  it  happened  that  the  old  race  horse  and 
charger  had  his  journey  lengthened,  to 
the  degree  that  he  stood  on  his  feet  one 
hundred  days  without  once  lying  down, 
before  he  reached  Marseilles.  Yet  Capt. 
Vesey  raced  him  successfully  at  Pau,  and 
afterward  in  England.  He  won  a  steeple- 
chase when  twenty-two  years  of  age. 
When  he  had  to  be  destroyed,  because  of 
a  broken  leg,  at  twenty-three,  he  was 
absolutely  sound.  In  1890  he  was  de- 
scribed in  the  London  Live  Stock  Journal, 
as  "fresh  and  well,  with  immense  bone 
below  the  knee  (he  measured  eight  inches) 
and  as  clean  in  the  legs  as  a  four  year  old, 
notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  was 
hunted  in  Suffolk  last  year.*' 

He  was  a  very  beautiful  horse,  the 
finest  type  of  a  high  caste  Arab,  fifteen 
hands  high.  Maidan's  blood  is  also  to  be 
found  in  the  United  States,  though 
the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture 
decided  that  his  daughter,  from  a  pure- 
bred Ras  al  Fedawi  Arab  mare,  and 
registered  as  thoroughbred  in  Weather- 


8o  The  Arab  Horse 

bey's  "  General  Stud  Book,"  also,  present- 
ing the  certificate  of  Weatherbey  &  Sons, 
must  pay  duty,  because  the  sire  and  dam 
of  Maidan  were  not  so  registered,  though 
Maidan  himself  had  been  accepted  and 
registered.  The  reason  his  sire  and  dam 
were  not  registered  was  that  they  lived 
and  died  in  Nejd,  and  there  was  no 
occasion  for  them  to  be  registered  at  the 
English  Jockey  Club. 


HEIRESS  AND  HALF-BRED  DAUGHTER,  4  MONTHS  OLD 


CHAPTER  V 
Arab  Horses  in  America 

/CONTRARY  to  generally  accepted 
^^^  opinion,  many  good  Arabs  have 
come  to  America,  even  from  the 
early  days.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that 
they  have  imparted  their  good  qualities 
to  some  of  our  most  useful  horses,  the 
influence  of  Arab  blood  being  especially 
noticeable  in  the  old  Morgans,  that  of  the 
Barb  in  the  descendants  of  Henry  Clay. 

General  Washington's  famous  grey 
charger  was  an  entire  son  of  the  desert- 
born  horse  Ranger,  imported  to  New 
London,  Connecticut,  about  1765.  He  was 
a  dapple  grey,  fifteen  hands  high,  of  the 
finest  form,  symmetry,  and  finish.  As 
Washington  was  six  feet,  three  inches  tall, 
and  weighed  more  than  two  hundred 
pounds,  it  is  evident  that  the  little  son  of 
Ranger  must  have  been  a  weight  carrier. 
81 


82  The  Arab  Horse 

It  is  related  that  Washington  had  his 
attention  attracted  to  the  superiority  of 
the  horses  ridden  by  the  Connecticut 
cavalry  when  he  took  command  of  the 
Continental  army  at  Boston.  Calling 
** Light  Horse  Harry  Lee"  into  his  coun- 
sels, they  found  that  these  were  sons  and 
daughters  of  Ranger.  Captain  Lindsay 
was  thereupon  sent  to  the  Connecticut 
valley  to  purchase  the  horse,  and  he  was 
taken  to  Virginia  where  he  was  after- 
ward known  as  the  Lindsay  Arabian. 
The  horse  that  General  Israel  Putnam 
rode  when  he  galloped  down  the  steep 
declivity  of  a  hundred  steps  at  Green- 
wich, Connecticut,  later  in  the  war,  so 
escaping  the  British,  was  own  brother  to 
Washington's  charger. 

The  four  famous  grey  stallions  that  drew 
Lady  Washington's  coach  to  Philadelphia 
when  Congress  convened,  were  bred  on 
the  Washington  plantation  at  Mount 
Vernon,  and  were  half-bred  Arabians. 

In  the  first  volume  of  *'  Bruce's  Ameri- 
can Stud  Book  "  we  find  a  list  of  no  less 


Arab  Horses  in  America  ^^ 

than  forty-two  Arab  horses  imported 
into  the  United  States  during  the  century 
between  1760  and  i860,  besides  twelve 
Arab  mares,  four  Barb  horses,  and  two 
Barb  mares.  Since  that  time  the  number 
has  been  increased  greatly. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the 
Keene  Richards  importations.  It  was 
in  i854-'55  that  he  was  induced  to  go 
to  Arabia  for  horses,  backed  by  the  New 
Orleans  Jockey  Club,  accompanied  by 
Troyon,  the  animal  painter,  who  was  to 
assist  him  in  making  his  selections.  He 
went  among  the  Anazah  tribes  and 
brought  back  with  him  some  very  valu- 
able animals  of  the  choicest  families.  In 
this  country  they  failed  of  the  recog- 
nition they  deserved  for  many  reasons, 
one  being  the  unfortunate  time  of  their 
arrival.  The  great  Civil  War  was  brewing, 
and  people  had  their  attention  drawn  to 
more  serious  questions  than  horse  breed- 
ing in  1857,  when  the  Keene  Richards 
Arabs  reached  Kentucky.  The  best  of 
his  horses  was  bred  to  but  five  mares,  yet 


84  The  Arab  Horse 

one  of  them  produced  the  great  race  horse 
Limestone,  and  another  the  dam  of  Dor- 
sey's  Golddust.  General  W.  T.  Withers, 
one  of  the  most  successful  breeders  of 
trotters  in  Kentucky,  had  two  or  three 
mares  in  his  stud  sired  by  one  of  the  Keene 
Richards  Arabs,  that  he  considered  the 
choicest  of  any  he  had.  In  1861  the  Civil 
War  burst  upon  the  land,  and  the  Keene 
Richards' s  Arabs  were  scattered  and  lost, 
as  were  other  valuable  animals  of  other 
breeds. 

It  is  told  that  after  the  battle  of  Pitts- 
burgh Landing  (Shiloh)  the  Confederate 
General  Breckenridge  went  to  George- 
town, Kentucky,  to  Mr.  Richards,  begging 
conveyance  to  Virginia  as  quickly  as 
possible,  as  the  Federal  troops  were  pur- 
suing him.  Richards  had  nothing  to  offer 
but  a  pair  of  three  year  old  half-bred 
Arab  fillies.  These  he  hitched  to  a  buck- 
board  and  started.  The  Federals  pur- 
sued on  thoroughbred  horses,  but  though 
they  gained  for  a  while,  their  bolt  was 
soon  shot,  and  they  had  to  draw  rein. 


Arab  Horses  in  America  85 

The  Arab  fillies  never  stopped  until 
they  had  Breckenridge  safely  within 
the  Confederate  lines.  It  is  doubtful 
if  he  would  have  proved  a  good  wit- 
ness for  the  case  of  those  who  prate 
about  the  failure  of  the  Keene  Rich- 
ards's  Arabs. 

Other  notable  Arabian  horses  that 
came  to  America  were  the  two,  Maaneke 
Hedragi  and  Siklany  Gidran  (note  these 
names),  sent  as  a  present  to  Hon.  Wm. 
H.  Seward  when  Lincoln's  Secretary  of 
State,  Umbark,  sent  to  President  Van 
Buren,  Linden  Tree  and  Leopard,  pre- 
sented by  the  Sultan  of  Turkey  Abdul 
Hamid  IL,  to  General  U.  S.  Grant.  The 
so-called  Arabs  or  Barbs  brought  to  New 
York  in  1905,  said  to  be  intended  as  a 
present  for  President  Roosevelt,  need  no 
attention.  They  were  a  fraud.  Mr.  Roose- 
velt would  have  none  of  them,  and  when 
sold  by  auction  to  pay  their  feed  bills  at 
Hoboken,  they  did  not  bring  the  value 
of  the  oats  they  had  eaten.  It  is  such 
beasts  as  they,  when  called  Arabs,  that 


86  The  Arab  Horse 

discredit  the  entire  race  with  the  un- 
informed. 

Mention  has  not  been  made  of  a  con- 
siderable consignment  of  Arabians,  both 
mares  and  stallions,  brought  over  by 
Commodore  Jesse  D.  Elliott,  U.  S.  N., 
in  1838.  They  were  procured  by  him 
during  a  cruise  to  the  coast  of  Syria  in 
1837,  on  the  frigate  Constitution.  They 
are  registered  in  Bruce's  American  Stud 
Book,  but  the  disposition  made  of  them 
is  not  noted. 

Since  1885  quite  a  number  of  really 
high -caste  Arabs  have  come  to  the 
United  States.  Naomi,  foaled  in  Upton's 
stable  in  England,  her  dam  brought 
from  Arabia  on  his  first  visit,  was  im- 
ported in  1888.  She  was  a  very  valuable 
mare,  well  known  and  esteemed  in  Eng- 
land. The  list  of  Naomi's  offspring  has 
already  been  given.  She  greatly  en- 
riched the  horse  breeding  of  America  by 
her  blood,  and  died  full  of  years  and 
honours. 

In  1893  Mr.  Huntington  bought  Nazli, 


Arab  Horses  in  America  87 

daughter  of  Naomi  and  Maidan.  She 
is  still  owned  by  the  Huntington  Stud 
at  Oyster  Bay,  and  has  produced  some 
most  valuable  animals.  Two  of  these,  a 
son  and  a  daughter,  both  by  her  half- 
brother  Anazah  (son  of  Naomi  and  Gen. 
Grant's  Leopard)  are  owned  by  Mr. 
Herman  Hoopes,  of  Philadelphia.  Mr. 
Huntington  also  imported  on  same  ship 
with  Nazli,  two  pure  bred  sons  of  Kismet, 
Nimr,  son  of  Nazli,  and  Garaveen,  whose 
dam  was  Kushdil,  another  daughter 
of  Naomi,  Kushdil's  sire  having  been 
Kars. 

Garaveen  was  bought  by  Mr.  J.  A  P. 
Ramsdell  of  Newburgh,  who  also  bought 
Ras  Aloula  and  Rakusheh  from  Miss 
Dillon,  and  Shahwan  from  Mr.  W.  S. 
Blunt.  He  also  secured  a  white  mare 
from  an  Arab  Sheik  who  brought  her 
to  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago 
in  1893.  Her  breeding  is  not  known,  and 
she  lacks  registration;  yet  Nejme  bears 
every  indication  of  being  a  high  caste 
Arab  mare. 


88  The  Arab  Horse 

This,  however,  is  by  no  means  a  safe 
way  to  judge  of  a  horse's  breeding.  A 
chestnut  mare  by  Maidan,  imported  from 
England  by  the  writer  in  1898,  has  the 
most  perfect  conformation  and  courage, 
such  as  would  cause  her  to  be  judged  a 
pure-bred  Arab  in  the  choicest  company. 
No  other  son  or  daughter  of  Maidan  can 
surpass  her  in  beauty  of  head,  loftily 
carried  tail,  perfect  form  and  symmetry. 
Yet  she  is  only  a  half-bred  Arab;  her  dam 
was  a  thoroughbred  English  racing  mare. 
She  has  distinguished  herself  in  the  hunt- 
ing fields  of  England,  France,  Algeria, 
America,  won  first  prize  in  jumping  at 
the  Crystal  Palace,  London,  in  1896,  and 
has  bred  eight  beautiful  foals.  If  ap- 
pearance and  performance  were  all  that 
need  be  sought  for  as  credentials,  Heiress 
would  pass  for  a  pure-bred  Arab  of  the 
very  highest  type.  If  further  evidence 
were  needed  that  appearance  is  not  al- 
ways a  safe  ground  for  judging  a  horse  to 
be  pure-bred,  a  son  of  Garaveen  owned 
by  Mr.  Ramsdell,  whose  dam  was  a  polo 


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HEIRESS 


Daughter  of  Maidan  ;   her  dam  a  thoroughbred  mare  by  Herbertstown 

Seventeen  years  old,  has  hunted  in  England,  France,  Algeria,  America.      First 

prize  in  jumping  class  at  Crystal  Palace,  London,  1896.     Dam  of  8  foals 


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HALF-BRED  GELDING  BY  GARAVEEN 


Arab  Horses  in  America  89 

pony  mare,  and  in  the  same  stable  with 
Nejme,  may  also  be  cited.  Nothing 
could  be  more  beautiful  than  this  chest- 
nut gelding,  yet  we  know  that  he  is  but 
a  half-bred. 

Speaking  of  the  necessity  for  care  in 
making  certain  of  the  origin  of  horses 
claiming  to  be  pure  bred  Arabians,  Lady 
Anne  Blunt  writes: 

*' As  it  is  a  fundamental  principle  at 
the  Crabbet  Arabian  Stud  that  no  stal- 
lion, however  individually  excellent,  is 
eligible  for  service  if  there  is  any  doubt 
or  lack  of  information  as  to  a  true  Arabian 
descent,  it  follows  that  at  this  stud  any 
'not  proven'  element  must  remain  an 
insuperable  objection.  I  have  heard  of 
disastrous  results  from  the  neglect  of 
this  rule,  for  example  from  Prince  San- 
gusco,  who  told  me  of  the  immense 
trouble  he  had  to  eliminate  the  blood  of 
horses  he  had  accepted  on  insufficient 
testimony. 

**0n  the  other  hand  there  are  cases 
where,  the  risk  having  been  run,  results 
have  justified  the  experiment,  as  any 
flaw   in   blood  is  sure  to  come  out  in 


90  The  Arab  Horse 

descendants  sooner  or  later,  and  if  results 
are  persistently  good  they  may  practi- 
cally be  treated  as  proof.  But  that  takes 
years." 

Mr.  W.  S.  Forbes,  of  Boston,  about  the 
same  time,  brought  two  Arabs,  the 
chestnut  mare  Jamilla  and  the  bay 
stallion  Bedr,  from  the  Crabbet  Arabian 
Stud,  with  the  great  race  horse  Meddler, 
to  this  country.  Hon.  W.  C.  Whitney 
also  imported  a  bay  horse  from  Bombay 
somewhat  later,  and  Mr.  Eustis  got  the 
bay  mares  Bushra  and  Backaret  from  Mr. 
Blunt  in  1900. 

In  1898  there  came  from  Miss  Dillon's 
Pudlicote  Stud  the  two  mares  Raksh 
and  Shabaka.  The  former  was  a  most 
beautiful  animal,  a  daughter  of  Maidan, 
her  dam  by  El  Emir  from  Rachida,  and 
so  of  the  much  prized  Ras  al  Fedawi 
strain.  Her  death,  leaving  no  progeny, 
was  a  serious  loss.  Shabaka  was  bred 
by  Lord  Arthur  Cecil,  her  sire  the  Duke 
of  Bedford's  Mameluke,  her  dam  Mr. 
Chaplin's  Kesia  II,  already  mentioned  in 


mmnif  1 1, 


(ii 


RAKSH 


SEGARIO,  ch.  h.,  1902 


Shabaka  ch.  m.  Nimr,  ch.  h. 

Bred  by  Lord  Arthur  Bred  by  Rev.  F. 

Cecil,  England.  Vidal,  England. 

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Photograph  by  Schreiber 


SEGARIO,  4  YEARS 
Ered,  owned  and  ridden  by  the  author 


Arab  Horses  in  America  91 

connection  with  Major  Upton's  impor- 
tations. 

She  is  dam  of  the  very  beautiful 
horse  Segario,  whose  sire  was  Nimr.  In 
1905  Shabaka  was  sold  to  the  proprietors 
of  the  Huntington  Stud,  together  with  the 
grand  Russian  Arab  Gouniead,  bred  at 
the  Imperial  Stud  at  Streletsky,  and 
sent  to  America  by  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment in  1893.  Shabaka  foaled  a  very 
promising  filly  by  Gouniead  in  February 
1906. 

In  1905  Miss  Dillon  sent  the  bay  horse 
Hail,  a  son  of  the  famous  mare  Hagar. 
Hail  is  15.3.  His  sire  was  Jamrood, 
son  of  Maidan  and  Jerud. 

Two  months  after  Hail,  came  the  bay 
stallion  Imamzada,  son  of  Imam  and 
Kesia  II.  Imam  was  a  bay  son  of 
El  Emir,  that  Miss  Dillon  bought  at 
Damascus,  a  Manakhi  ibu  Sbeyli,  and 
Ishtar,  a  white  mare,  one  of  the  first 
bought  in  the  desert  by  the  Blunts.  For 
ten  years  Imamzada  has  been  distin- 
guished   in   the    Midland     Counties     of 


92  The  Arab  Horse 

England,  as  a  hunter  and  a  sire  of  hunters. 
He  is  about  15.2  and  of  immense  bone, 
measuring  more  than  eight  inches  below 
the  knee.  Imam  also  greatly  distin- 
guished himself  in  the  hunting  field  with 
the  Heythorpe  Hounds,  calling  forth 
most  laudatory  notice  in  the  London 
sporting  papers  for  his  jumping,  manners, 
and  endurance.  At  the  Oxfordshire  Show 
he  won  a  prize  of  £40  in  a  jumping  con- 
test, where  he  cleared  six  feet.  He  was 
also  a  fine  horse  in  harness.  In  the 
autumn  of  1894  Miss  Dillon  drove  him 
to  Cirencestor  Fair,  twenty-eight  miles, 
in  two  hours  and  thirty-five  minutes, 
hitched  to  a  heavy  cart,  in  which  were 
Miss  Dillon,  and  a  groom,  besides  saddles 
and  rugs.  Imam  returned  by  another 
route  to  Charlbury,  the  same  day,  thirty- 
three  miles,  in  three  hours  and  five 
minutes. 

A  notion  of  the  service  a  good  Arab 
can  perform  may  be  gathered  from  the 
record  of  Imam's  doings  in  the  eight  days 
beginning  November  11,   1894: 


'  ^^^^^^^^H^^H 

1      i 

^^^^t              vV^^^^i^^Bw?^^^^^^! 

IV^H 

;.  -^ 

■> 

t'notugrctpn  oy  ^cnreiOer 


IMAMZADA 


Imamzada,  b.  h.,  i8gi 

Bred  by  the  Hon.  Miss  E.  Dillon.  England 


/"■ 

Kesij( 

.11, 

b.  m. 

Imam.  h. 

h. 

Foaled 

property 

of 

Bred  by  Miss  Diilon. 

Hon.   Henry 

Chapl 

in. 

England. 

g'ss-si 

cowS 

SIA,  a  K 
sert  bre 
abia  by 
Hon. 
gland. 

3^ 

§3 

ffl-l 

pp 

il^ 

ilet  of  Nowak. 
Brought  from 
i.  R.  D.  Upton 
:nry    Chaplin, 

3 

II 

p 

*  Pedigree  of  Kesia  as  given  by  R.  D.  Upton's    "Gleanings  from  the 
Desert  of  Arabia,"  p.  387. 
4.    Breed — a  Keheilet  of  Nowak  . 
Her  color,  bay  (red). 
Breed  of  her  sire — Dabeh  Nowak. 
In  foal  by  the  hudud  Seglawi  al  Abd. 
His  tribe,  *.  e.  the  tribe  of  the  horse,  Ruallah  Anazah, 
17th  Jammaz,  (July)  of  the  Christian  year  1875. 
The  testifier  of  this  writing  is  the  Shaykh . 

SULEYMAN  IBN  MIRSHED. 


[] 


Seal  of    I        I    Suleyman 
Ibn  Mirshed 


O     m 

P.  -^ 

o  ^- 

o    «« 


Arab  Horses  in  America  93 

Saturday — Carried  Edwards  (Miss  Dillon's  Stud 
Groom)  hunting,  rider  thirteen  stone  (182  lbs.) 

Monday — Ridden  to  hounds  to  pilot  Miss  Roberts 
(daughter  of  Gen.  Lord  Roberts);  out  seven  hours, 
with  plenty  of  galloping  and  jumping. 

Tuesday — Fourteen  miles  in  harness  at  a  fast  pace. 

Thursday — Thirty  miles  in  harness. 

Friday — harness  again. 

Saturday — Sixteen  miles  in  harness. 

At  the  outbreak  of  war  in  South  Africa, 
Imam  went  as  a  charger.  He  was  the 
only  horse  on  the  ship  that  stood  the  6,000 
mile  voyage  without  apparent  injury, 
and  he  served  with  distinction  through- 
out the  whole  war. 

In  October  1905  there  came  also  the 
famous  old  mare  Rose  of  Sharon,  a  chest- 
nut, foaled  in  1885,  her  sire  Hadban,  dam 
Rodania,  a  Keheilet  Ajuz  of  Ibn  Rodan's 
strain,  whose  romantic  history  is  men- 
tioned in  connection  with  the  mares  at 
Crabbet    Park. 

Offspring  of  Rose  of  Sharon. 

1890,  ch.  h.  Rafyk,  by  Azrak. 

1 89 1,  ch.  h.  Rasham,  by  Azrak. 

1892,  ch.  h.  Ridaa  by  Merzuk. 
1894,  ch.  m.  Rishmeh,  by  Shahwan. 
1894,  ch.  m  Rotuba,  by  Ahmar. 


94  The  Arab  Horse 

1898,  ch.  m.  Rayyana,  by  Ahmar. 

1899,  ch.  m.  Rebekdar,  by  Mesaoud. 

1900,  ch.  h.  Ras  el  Jeyr,  by  Mesaoud. 

1 90 1,  ch.  h.  Rijin,  by  Mahruss. 

1902,  ch.  m.  Rumeliya,  by  Rejeb. 

1906,  ch.  h.  Rodam,  by  Harb,  son  of  the  "broken- 
legged  mare." 

The  death  of  Raksh  left  no  animal  in 
America  of  the  Ras  el  Fedawi  family, 
and  the  only  place  where  it  was  known 
to  exist  was  in  Miss  Dillon's  two  old 
mares  Raschida  (24  yrs.  old)  and  Rommia 
(19  yrs.).  Rommia  had  failed  to  pro- 
duce a  foal  for  ten  years.  Raschida  had 
by  her  side  a  beautiful  bay  filly  by  Haur- 
an,  and  Miss  Dillon  also  had  a  yearling 
daughter  of  Raschida  (foal  of  1904)  by 
Imamzada.  After  much  persuasion 
these  were  both  secured,  and  safely 
reached  America  in  October  1905.  Ras- 
china's  breeding  has  been  mentioned, 
also  that  of  Imamzada.  Hauran  is  a 
son  of  Hagar,  his  sire  Jezail  a  son  of 
Jedrania.  The  combination  of  blood 
in  the  younger  filly,  therefore,  is  not  less 
choice   than   that   of   the   older.     They 


Photograf'h  by  Schreiber 


RUMELIYA 


Dam — Rose  of  Sharon,  daughter  of  Rodania 
Sire — Rejeb,  son  of  Rosemary  (also  a  daughter  of  Rodania)  and  Mesaoud 


Arab  Horses  in  America  95 

both  unite  the  choicest  strains  of  Major 
Upton's  importations,  with  the  earHer 
of  the  Blunts,  and  are  believed  to  be  the 
only  animals  in  America  of .  the  Ras  al 
Fedawi  family. 

In  1906  three  more  mares  came  from 
Crabbett  Park,  (i)  Rumeliya,  4  years,  a 
daughter  of  Rose  of  Sharon,  her  sire  Rejeb, 
son  of  Rosemary  and  Mesaoud — in  foal  by 
Astraled,  son  of  Queen  of  Sheba  (Betey- 
an's  mare) ;  (2)  Rosetta,  4  years — a  daugh- 
ter of  Rosemary  and  Mesaoud — also  in 
foal  by  Astraled ;  and  (3)  Antika,  4  years 
— daughter  of  Asfura,  and  grand-daugh- 
ter of  Queen  of  Sheba — in  foal  by  Harb, 
son  of  Bint  Helwa  (the  broken-legged 
mare)  and  Mesaoud.  These  three,  com- 
bining the  choicest  strains  of  blood  that 
ever  left  Arabia,  and  joining  the  same 
stud  where  are  owned  the  Rose  of  Sharon 
and  two  of  [Raschida's  daughters,  must 
prove  a  valuable  addition  to  the  Arabs 
in  America. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Some  Last  Words 

]^0  PERSON  who  reads  the  books 
from  which  much  of  the  infor- 
mation conveyed  in  these  pages  has 
been  obtained  can  fail  to  be  impressed 
with  the  idea  that  the  blood  of  Keheilet 
Ajuz  is  a  preponderating  influence  in  the 
best  Arab  horses.  The  animals  pos- 
sessed of  this  blood  are  not  a  separate 
breed  among  Arabs — all  pure  Arabs  are 
of  one  breed.  But,  as  we  know  of  the 
old  Morgans  in  America,  there  were  separ- 
ate families,  for  example,  Woodburys, 
Giff ords,  Bulrushes,  and  all  were  Morgans, 
so  in  Arab  horses  there  is  a  choice;  and 
of  them  all  the  descendants  of  Keheilet 
Ajuz  are  the  first.  Upton  says  in  ''Glean- 
ings From  the  Desert"   (p.  320): 

**  It  appears  to  me  that  although  there 
are  numerous  offshoots  from  the  Keheilet 
97 


98  The  Arab  Horse 

Ajiiz,  each  with  a  specific  name,  there  is 
still  a  main  line  or  strain  of  descent 
carried  on  of  Keheilet  Ajnz  without  any 
distinguishing  name,  and  that  the  name 
Keheilet  Ajuz  is  suiaEicient  to  mark  any 
such  horse  or  mare." 

He  also  explodes  the  tradition  that 
mares  are  not  to  be  had  of  the  Arabs, 
and  makes  evident  the  fact  that  if  a  man 
knows  what  he  wants,  and  has  the  money 
to  pay  the  price;  he  can  get  it,  or  could 
at  the  time  of  his  visits  (p.  p.  365-6). 

"Before  leaving  this  portion  of  the 
subject,  it  is  convenient  to  allude  to  an 
assertion  which  has  been  made,  and  so 
oft  repeated  that  it  has  been  accepted  as 
an  established  fact — that  it  is  impossible 
to  obtain  an  Arabian  mare;  that 
the  Arabs  will  not  part  with  a  mare;  that 
they  will  sell  horses,  but  nothing  will 
tempt  them  to  part  with  a  mare.  The 
least  informed  on  the  subject  of  Arabians 
will  tell  you  this  as  glibly  and  with  as 
much  assurance  as  if  he  had  been  brought 
up  in  the  desert.  One  certainly  announ- 
ced that  there  was  a  law  forbidding  the 
export   of   an  Arabian  mare;    Now,    I 


Photograph  by  Schreibtr 


ROSEIIA,  4  YEARS 

Dam — Rosemary,  daughter  of  Rodania 
Sire — Mesaoud 


Some  Last  Words  99 

can  assure  my  readers  that  it  is  not  by 
any  means  impossible  to  obtain  a  genuine 
Arab  mare.  We  visited  the  most  ex- 
clusive of  all  Badaween  tribes  and  never 
heard  of  such  a  law.  If  any  law  did 
exist,  it  would  be  against  selling,  not 
exporting;  but  we  never  heard  of  such  a 
thing  in  the  desert.  I  can  assure  my 
readers  that  among  the  genuine  Badaween 
of  the  Arabian  desert  we  found  no  prej- 
udice against  parting  with  or  selling  a 
mare.  Difficulty  there  certainly  is  to 
induce  such  people  as  the  Anazah  to  sell 
either  horses  or  mares,  for  they  do  not 
traffic  in  horses ;  but  if  there  be  any  dif- 
ference, you  might  get  a  good  mare  with 
less  trouble  than  a  good  horse. 

''  I  have  the  best  of  possible  authority 
for  refuting  the  statement  that  mares  are 
not  to  be  got,  for  mares  were  not  infre- 
quently offered  to  us,  and  among  the 
Anazah  (not  the  wandering  people  of 
Erack)  we  obtained  both  mares  and  horses, 
and  the  former  without  more  difficulty 
than  the  latter.'' 

The  idea  has  also  been  given  currency 
that  Manakhi  Hedruj  was  a  strain  so 
rare  as  to  be  seldom  seen  in  these  days, 


loo  The  Arab  Horse 

was  no  longer  to  be  had  even  for  large 
sums  of  money,  and  that  they  are  always 
chestnuts,  of  a  size  so  much  above  the 
other  Arab  families  that  these  others  are 
merely  ''  pony  Arabs." 

Upton  says  of  them  (Gleanings  p. 
321): 

''The  Manakhi  appeared  to  us  a 
favourite  strain,  for  both  horses  and  mares 
of  this  family  are  to  be  found  in  most 
tribes  of  the  Badaween;  and  we  thought, 
with  the  exception  of  Keheilet  Ajuz, 
there  were  more  horses  and  mares  among 
the  Anazah,  certainly  among  the  Sabaah, 
of  the  Manakhi  family  than  any  other." 

The  Blunts,  four  years  after  Upton, 
had  no  difficulty  in  securing  several 
animals  of  the  Manakhi  family,  which 
they  brought  with  them  to  the  Crabbet 
Arabian  Stud.  Of  their  colour  and  size 
Upton  remarks  (Gleanings  p.  321): 

*'  There  was  a  nice  clean-made,  lengthy, 
useful,  and  racing-like  dark  grey  three 
year  old  filly  of  the  Manakhi  Hedruj 
family  which  belonged  to  Shaykh  Jedaan 


Some  Last  Words  loi 

ibn  Mahaid.  There  were  four  mares  of 
Suleiman  ibn  Mirshid  picketed  in  front 
of  his  tent,  the  best  of  which  he  considered 
to  be  the  bluish-grey  (Azzrak)  mare,  four 
or  five  years  old.  She  was  also  of  the 
Manakhi  Hedruj  family,  and  stood 
fourteen  hands,  three  inches  high,'' 

Speaking  of  colour  of  Arab  horses  he 
says  (p.  341): 

"  As  to  colour,  I  do  not  pretend  to  re- 
strict it;  but  among  the  Anazah  bay 
appeared  to  us  the  most  general,  and, 
I  think  is  the  favourite  colour  among  the 
Arabs;  chestnuts  and  greys  are  less 
numerous,  and  together  would  not  equal 
the  number  of  those  of  a  bay  colour." 

Finally,  the  question  seems  pertinent — 
Why,  if  Arab  horses  are  so  valuable,  their 
value  so  well  known,  and  they  can  be 
procured,  have  they  not  become  more 
widely  distributed? 

Various  answers,  all  good,  may  be 
given  to  this  question.  In  the  first  place 
the  average  horseman  has  come  to  be- 
lieve their  qualities  and  reputation  to  be 


I02  The  Arab  Horse 

figments  of  the  imagination,  like  the 
Arabian  Nights  tales,  and  having  similar 
origin.  He  has  never  seen  one  of  these 
wonderful  horses,  and  none  of  his  friends 
have  seen  one.  Therefore,  the  horse  as 
he  is  represented  does  not  exist.  Again, 
even  if  he  becomes  convinced  there  is 
such  a  horse  he  does  not  know  where  to 
look  for  him,  does  not  feel  certain  he  can 
secure  the  genuine  article  if  he  parts  with 
his  good  money  to  obtain  one,  and  if  he 
does  find  what  he  becomes  convinced  is 
what  he  wants  the  price  is  sure  to  be  a 
stiff  one.  The  fact  is  the  whole  business 
involves  the  question  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, which  is  the  key  to  all  economic 
calculations. 

From  this  time  forward  it  will  pay  less 
and  less  to  breed  anything  but  the  best 
horses,  and  those  which  will  yield  the 
safest  return  will  be  such  as  will  be  best 
adapted  for  use  under  the  saddle,  either 
for  pleasure  or  as  cavalry  mounts.  In 
either  of  those  forms  of  utility  no  horse 
that  ever  lived  can  compare  with  one  of 


Some  Last  Words  103 

Arab  blood,  and  the  supply  of  animals  of 
that  kind  is  extremely  limited.  The 
people  possessing  them,  whether  the 
Bedouins  or  those  who  have  bought 
from  them,  have  never  had  an  over  supply. 

A  reason  for  this  is  perhaps  to  be  found 
in  one  statement  of  conditions  for  which 
Mr.  Wilfrid  Blunt  is  authority  namely: 
that  the  pure  Arab  is  not  a  prolific  breed- 
ing animal.  He  thinks  one  cause  for  this 
may  be  his  intense  inbreeding.  In- 
breeding is  the  only  way  to  secure  fixity  of 
type  in  any  form  of  animal  life;  but  the 
penalty  carried  with  it  is  limitation  of 
the  reproductive  tendency.  Mr.  Blunt 
informed  one  inquirer  that  if  fifteen 
mares  out  of  twenty-five  produced  off- 
spring each  year  at  Crabbett  Park,  he 
felt  satisfied. 

The  tendency  of  this  condition  of 
affairs  is  to  make  the  supply  of  pure 
Arabs  always  short,  and  the  price  high. 
A  careful  study  of  the  lists  presented  to 
the  readers  of  this  book,  however,  will 
show  that  certain  mares  have  been  con- 


104  The  Arab  Horse 

sistent  and  uniform  producers  of  num- 
erous and  valuable  offspring.  By  ac- 
quiring, therefore,  from  breeders  of 
reputation,  animals  whose  history  has 
been  so  well  defined  as  to  admit  them 
into  authoritative  records  such  as 
Weatherbey's  General  Stud  Book,  and 
the  American  Jockey  Club  Stud  Book, 
selecting  carefully  among  them  such  as 
are  of  the  choicest  strains  and  those 
coming  from  long  lived  and  prolific 
families — for  such  are  certainly  to  be 
had — it  is  possible  to  secure  the  means 
of  breeding  horses  that  shall  be  both  a 
pleasure  and  a  profit  to  the  breeder. 

FINIS 


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